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NOTES OF A TRIP 



CHICAGO TO VICTORIA 



VANCOUVER'S ISLAXD, 



AND RETURN 



1884. 




PRINTICD FOR PrilVj^-rE CIRCXJL ATION. 



CHICAGO: 

RAND, McNALLY & CO., PRINTERS AND ENGRAVERS. 

1885. 



24237 

A large portioq of this itiqerary has appeared iq the "Newcastle 
Weekly C^]roqicle," of Newcastle-upoq-Tyne, England. Mr. James 
Hay, of Southsea, had previously giveq selectioqs froiT] it iq a paper 
read by him before tl^e Literary aqd Scieqtific Society of Portsmouth, 
England. 

It is hjere printed in full as originally written. 







GljiGDgo to Victoria, Voijcouver's Isioijl 



AND RETURN. 



Thursday, July 24, 1884, we leave Chicago at 1 p. m., via the 
Chicago & Alton llailroad. We have a drawing-room in a l)eautiful 
and convenient buffet sleeping car. We have supper in the superb 
dining car "Charlton,"' said to he the largest car ever built. In this 
spacious and beautiful car, with its large windows, lai'ge tables, roomy 
seats, excellent and attentive waiters, and generous bill of fare, we 
have all the luxuries and c'bniforts of a first-class hotel. Flowers on 
all the tables and on othei- points of vantage add beauty and fragrance 
to that whicli was already very beautiful. It is a pretty custom on the 
dining cars on this road for the waiters to adorn the patrons with 
button-hole bouquets. On this particular car, these bouquets were 
larger than on the other dining cars. In reply to an incpiiry, a polite 
waiter laughingly explained that the bouquets were made large to 
correspond with the size of the car, so that not only the car should 
be the largest of its kind but the bouquets likewise. 

It was one of Illinois' hottest days, sultry to the extreme point of 
endurance. Corn is the leading product of the country through which 
our route lay, and the corn crop looked promising. Here and there 
it had been bent down considerably by heavy showers of rain. Much 
interest was felt in the corn crop this year, because for the preced- 
ing two years corn in Illinois had not come up to the expected pro- 
lific yield. A rainstorm came on during the afternoon, and lasted, 
without much intermission, all night. It did not make it perceptiblv 
cooler, and sleep became almost an impossibility. While, however, 
it was not what might have l)een hoped, a temporary comfort to 
travelers, it luckily did not succeed in doing permanent damage to 
the corn. 

Friday, July 25th. We arrive in Kansas City at 8:25 a. m. The 
Union Depot, used by all the railroads, eleven in number, centring 
in this city, is on the fiats below the city. These fiats are lowlands 



NOTES OF A TRIP 

which spread out toward the Missouri and Kaw rivers and the open 
country lying west. The Kaw river empties into the Missouri a mile 
or two above Kansas City. Beyond the junction of these two rivers 
lies Wyandotte, picturesquely spread over rising ground. Kansas 
City proper is a city set on a veiy high hill. It is also a city which 
has a high opinion of itself. It is the correct thing to think and 
speak highly of Kansas City as long as you remain in it, and it is 
safe to do so, and entirely satisfactory to the average citizen. It 
is simply just, not to seiiously modify that opinion on second 
thoughts, after bidding good-bye to this most progressive of Missouri 
cities. It has all the dash of Chicago, and has the ambition to 
believe that it will rival St. Louis in population. It now numbers 
about 100,000. The flats present a busy scene of elevators, pork- 
packing and other establishments; passenger depor, freight depots 
and 3'ards; and the numeious railroad tracks radiating in all direc- 
tions, — to Mexico, California, Oregon, Manitoba; to the frozen North, 
the sunny South, the Pacific slope, the Atlantic seaboard and the 
Gulf of Mexico. 

We get rooms at the Centropolis Hotel, and drive round the 
city. The residence portion is constantly improving, and is very fine. 
Some of the locations present commanding views of a pleasant land. 
Fine residences are numerous, evidencing widely diffused wealth and 
good taste and aspirations after comfort. From an elevated point, in 
the outskirts of the city, we get extensive views in all directions. We 
have the Missouri in sight above and below the city ; the flats, the 
Kaw, Wyandotte ; the flat, wooded lowlands across the Missouri ; 
Kansas City, on the hills; and the rolling, hilly country stretching 
back from the city to Westport and beyond, — scenes which leave an 
ineff"aceable impression. On former visits, I availed myself of this 
advantageous point of view, and I return to it always with pleasure. 

Kansas City was once, and that, too, within the memoiy of young 
people, Westport Landing, and nothing more. Now Westport is 
a not very important suburb of Kansas City. In the irony of fate the 
same result has befallen many other ambitious places in this country. 
Thus, Monterey, in California, now a fishing place and a bathing and 
pleasure resort, and nothing more, was once expected to become 
what San Francisco has become. New Buffalo, Indiana, and Michi- 
gan City, Indiana, both on Lake Michigan, each expected to be the 
great city in the West, which Chicago has become. Time disap- 
points many expectations. The heat was intense to-day. 

Saturday, July 26lh. We leave Kansas City at 9:50 a. m., via the 



FROM CHICAGO TO VICTORIA. 5 

Atchison, Topeka & Santa F6 Railroad. Tlie day is insufferably hot. 
To Lawrence, and on to Tojieka, we run for the most part close to 
the Kaw river. It is very full, from recent rains. Corn and all 
crops are lookina; splendid. Farmers can not get help enough to cut 
and store their crops, and it is even said that some of them, rather 
than leave the wheat standing which they are unable to handle, are 
offering it free to any one who will cut it and take it away. This was 
probably only a loud way of reporting the prolific harvest; but the 
assertion was made that it was an actual fact. I accepted it, how- 
ever, as an exaggeiated metliod of statement adopted by some creat- 
ure endowed with an Oriental imagination and gift of speecli. Such 
crops have not been reaped in Kansas for six years past. Conse- 
quently everybody is exultant, Ivunsas is " booming," and prices of 
land are going up. One result will be that these money-making 
Kansas farmers will devote part of their surplus earnings to a pleas- 
ure trip East, to visit their ohl homesteads from which they emi- 
grated, and to spread among their old friends and neighbors the 
glad tidings of fruitful Kansas, and, l)y their glowing reports, influ- 
ence another influx of immigration. 

Nominally, K;insas still continues to be a prohibition State. In 
reality, however, it is nothing of the kind. Prohiljition no more 
prohibits here than it does in otlier States, in spite of an ex-Governor 
of Kansas to the contrary, "who," said one of my informants, an 
indignant Republican, " was tiie first Republican candidate for Gov- 
ernor who lost his party the State, and was deservedly ' snowed 
under ' by thousands of advei'se voters." As it is the last day of 
the week, cases of champagne and car-loads of beer are arriving and 
being unloaded and delivered at all stations. The railway company 
takes the side of safety, as it usually does in all cases of doubt, and 
declines to carry this traflBc. The express companies, theiefore, have 
a monopoly of it. These illegal consignments arrive, usually, on 
Saturday and Sunday. 

It appears to be the experience that prohibition condenses the 
drinking custom to fractions of time, forces it to special days, and 
impels to periodical heavy drinking, instead of leaving the drinker 
free to spread his drinking thinly over every day, and imperceptibly 
attain and retain habits of strict moderation. I have known it to 
happen in I^ritisli cities in which a Sunday liquor law existed, that 
the ]ioor man, wlio would otherwise have i)e(!n content with a glass 
in moderation on Sunday, laid in a stock, in self-defense, on Saturday 
night, which he used before Monday moiiiing, just because he had it 



6 NOTES OF A TRIP 

handy. Moderate drinkers are thus sometimt^s made immoderate 
drinkers by unwise legislation, brought about by popularity-hunters, 
and well-meaning but weak-minded people who leave human Tiature 
out of their count. Such is the perversity of nature that it refuses to 
be put in prohibition moulds or other inventions of strait-jacket 
reformers. At Topeka, the capital of Kansas, where we dine, I am 
told that 1 can get wagon loads of beer, etc., over the way. A resi- 
dent of Kansas City interpolates, that Kansas City, which is a Demo- 
cratic, non-prohibition city in the Democratic State of Missouri, 
permits no drinking on Sunday, and on that day the curious sight 
can be witnessed of citizens of Kansas City, Missouri, going over to 
the prohibition State of Kansas to do their liquor-drinking. 

The leader in this prohibition movement appears to be in bad 
odor outside the clique which follows him ; and but one opinion 
about him was expressed to me, that he was a mere self-seeking 
politician aspiring to power and office, who had mistaken his way ; 
and that, if he thought any other path than prohibition lay open to 
him to power atid pelf and position, he would walk therein. It has 
already been said that he lost his party the State ; and at a later date 
lie lost the same party his country. He lost the Republican party the 
presidency of the United States by running on a Prohibition ticket 
for President, and drawing away just enough votes from the Repub- 
lican party to defeat the Republican candidate and elect the Demo- 
cratic one. Angry Republicans roundly declare, that for this he is to 
have Democratic rewaid, or, at any rate, that by his candidacy he has 
advertised hiuiself so extensively that he will be in demand as a 
lecturer on total abstinence, and gather ducats galore. His candi- 
dacy was widely distrusted, the Republican organs opened vials of 
political wrath upon him, and the organs of all parties exposed 
relentlessly to view the sores of his social life, and he was burnt in 
effigy in a few places. His election cry, " Vote as you pray," had 
the taint of cant in it ; he stood as much chance of being elected to 
the presidency as he did of being elected to the papacy, and it is 
onl}' reasonable to suppose that he knew this just as well as every- 
body else did. 

After passing an uncomfortably hot day, we arrived at Newton, 
Kansas, at 6: 20 p. m. Ladies on the train, and who were from Louisi- 
ana, said that it was hotter than in Louisiana. They looked forward 
with apprehension to a hot night in the sleeping car, and envied us 
our stop over at night at Newton. But it was so hot that night 
in Newton, that we were hardly disposed to admit that we could 



FROM CIIICAdO TO VICTORIA. 7 

have haii a more sultry experience in a sleeping car. Our plan, 
however, was, as much as possible, to stop over at night, and travel 
in the day time, so as to see all that we could of the country. 

Sunday, July 27th. We leave Newton at 7:30 a. m., and begin 
to-day to renew acquaintance with prairie dog villages. Fine crops 




continue to come into view, and we look out at intervals on vast 
herds of cattle and horses. We arrive at Dodge City at 2:40 p. m., 
and depart from there at 1:45 p. m. This incredible feat was 
made possible by the change of meridian time taking effect westward 
at this point. We turn our watches back one hour, and indulge in 
heterodox explanations of the way in which the Pro])h(,'t Tsaiali of 



8 NOTES OF A TRIP 

old manipulated the dial of Ahaz. Turning back time is not so 
much of a miracle in our day as in that of Hezekiah. 

At Dodge an immense herd of cattle is fording the Arkansas. The 
picturesque cow-boy assists in this ci'ossing. Wr have seen him 
several times as we have come along. In Dodge we see him ; and 
we also see his ponies, many in number, tied up to posts in the 
street, while he irrigates his constitutionally thirsty soul in some 
drinking saloon. Distance lends enchantment to the view when the 
cow-boy is the object of vision. He looks not amiss afar o£F on 
horseback, distance softening the outline of his figure, and effectually 
concealing the outlines of his face : near at hand he is not by any 
means alluring. It does not occur to you that it is desirable to culti- 
vate his acquaintance, or to think of him as intellectual. If he 
drops into literature, it is that of yellow covers and unutterable con- 
tents. His tone is loud ; his language is plain, but not particularly 
edifying, and usually consists largely of selections at random from 
Ho y Writ, not in that order, nor of that kind, which is pleasing to 
ears polite or pious. He rides fast, drinks fast, lives fast, and it 
sometimes falls to him to die fast. He is doomed to disappear like 
the buffalo and the Indian. Meantime, red-shirted or red-belted, 
armed, and mounted on a fleet steed, he is not an unlovely streak df 
color on the distant horizon. He becomes worse than commonplace, 
and has a touch of something more dangerous than disagreeable, as 
he comes closer. 

In Dodge recently an ex-United States marshal went gunning 
for a United States marshal. These two distinguished citizens — one 
an "active and intelligent" official, and the other an "active and 
intelligent " ex-official — were looking for each other (which is, I 
believe, the correct way of expressing it), and opened fire on sighting 
each other, and one fell. We gazed from the train on the historic 
spot of this encounter. Verdict of good citizens of Dodge : " Pity 
that both had not fallen in the fray : Dodge could well have spared 
both." 

The Arkansas river has l)een alongside for some distance, having 
been first noticed at Great Bend, so called from the bend in the river. 
It remains in sight the gieater part of the way until Pueblo is 
reached, where we cross it twice, having previously crossed it twice, 
once at Granada, and once about twenty miles west of La Junta. At 
Cimarron, we come upon the scene of a cyclone of last night. The 
houses here are chiefly of the adobe style of architecture, with varia- 
tions. They have been unroofed and much damaged, but fortunately 



FROM CHIC ACQ TO VICTORIA. 9 

are of an order which can easily, rapidly and cheaply be repaired, 
or entirely reconstructed. 

Within the memory of very young men, these vast prairies over 
which we have passed the hist two days were grazing grounds of 
buffalo, and were dangerous from Indians : now they teem with rich 
products, and are rapidly becouung populous with a race who make 
the school-house the biggest and most prominent landmark in their 
progress west. We arrive at La Junta at 9:40 v. m. Here one 
line of railroad diverges to New Mexico, Mexico, Arizona and Cali- 
fornia, and the other continues on to Pueblo and Denver, there to 
connect with lines to the Pacific coast. 

Monday, July 28th. We leave La Junta at 7:40 a. m. There is 
nothing big about it but its school-house, which is most creditable to 
it. The abode of learning was large, substantially Ijuilt, and well 
located. It faced the railroad station, of which our hotel was a part, 
and was a pleasant object of contemplation from our windows. 
Along the street opposite, and on the other side of the railroad track, 
in the early morning, there straggled along, in an uncertain and any- 
thing but straightforward manner, a drunken loafer, who appeared to 
be making himself unpleasant to the few people who were abroad at 
that hour. Tacking eccentrically, he propelled himself into a meat 
market, which is the Western descriptive for butcher's shop. Thei'e 
must have been some sudden unpleasantness; for we speedily saw 
him thrown out on the sidewalk by the proprietor of the market, 
who, after performing this feat, returned to his store and his work. 
The loafer picked himself up and went on his way, meeting two 
pedestrians, to whom he explained his unpremeditated and lightning 
exit from the moat market; but they did not appear to sympathize in 
his view of the case. 

Soon, on our journey westward from La Junta, the Spanish Peaks, 
and Pike's Peak, and the great range of the Rocky Mountains, come 
in sight. Some idea of this immense range can be attained by con- 
sidering that its area in the United States is very nearly eleven times 
that of Great Britain. We run alongside of it and in its foot-hills all 
the way from Pueblo to Denver. These two cities appear to havd 
remained about stationary in population for the last two years. We 
gaze on snow-capped mountains, catch glimpses of Colorado Springs, 
the Garden of the Gods and Monument Park ; and at 1:20 p. m. 
lunch at the divide, now called Palmer Lake; elevation, 7,237 feet; 
distance from Denver, 52 miles. 

From this elevated point, the water flows in oj)posite directions. 



10 



NOTES OF A TRIP 






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FROM CHTCAdO TO VICTORIA. 



11 




Snowy Range. 



13 



NOTES OF A TRIP 



northward to the Phitte, a tributary of the Missouri, and southward 
to the Arkansas. It is the point of division on the watershed, and 
took its oh] name from that. A beautiful little lake adorns this 
height, and from its midst a fountain plays unceasingly. Its shores 
are ke|)t in o-ood order, and spacious pleasure grounds lie all around 




A Glimpse of Manitou and Pike s Peak. 

it. There are a band-stand and swings and similar accommodations 
for fun-loving children. With mountains all around, in a dry and 
rarefied and wonderfully curative atmosphere, in charming locations, 
we have an hotel for visitors, summer villas, pavilion for shelter and for 
dancing, parks, deer; Monument creek, with its cascades; beauties 
in pine and sycamore, moss and shrubs and wild flowers. It is a 



FROM CHICAGO TO VICTORIA. 



13 



Sunday pleasure resort for Denver, and on that day special trains 
are run, which are well patronized. 

The most striking natural (il)ject we ])ass between the divide and 
Denver is Castle Rock, thirty-three miles from Denver. It is a promi- 
nent portion of the foot-hills of the Rocky Mountains, and has a most 




Monument Park. 



castle-like look; but it is gradually lessening in size, great boulders 
have chipped off and rolled dcnvn, more will follow, and an age will 
come when Castle Rock will be only a memory, or a line in a book. 
Time conquers all things. 



14 NOTES OF A TRIP 

We have passed a few prairie dog villages between Paeblo and 
Denver. We arrive in Denver at 3:15 p. m., and at night go to the 
Tabor Opera House, one of the show places of Denver, of which its 
citizens are justly proud. The exterior is imposing, the interior 
spacious and attractive, the seats roomy, and the ventilation excep- 
tionally good. 

Tuesday, July 2lJth, We drive to the fine Exhibition Building, 
and through the principal streets. Denver has fine private and pub- 
lic buildings, — among them the County Building, the Windsor Hotel, 
at which we have our quarters, the Union Depot, and the High 
School. It has also thirty-six common schools, large, airy, well built, 
lighted and ventilated. Its school buildings are not surpassed, if 
equaled, in any other city in the Union. Pure water is much cared 
for and sought after. The hotel at which we stay has its own artesian 
well, which supplies water perfectly free from all impurity, and clear 
as crystal. The American Hotel also has its own artesian well, and 
other hotels will doubtless be spurred on by rivalry to similar acqui- 
sitions. A splendid site on high ground directly facing the Rocky 
Mountains has been set apart for the Capitol buildings and grounds. 
What sublime decrees ought to be the result of such an outlook ! 
With the snow-clad summits of the sublimities looking down and in 
upon them, surely legislators will not dare to be mean in mind nor 
paltry in performance. 

It rained during our drive. It makes as much fuss about a 
shower here as a hen does cackling over a newly laid e^g; threatens 
what it will do long before it settles down to business; shakes the 
trees as if it were going to blow them dovpn, whirls the dust in clouds 
as if it were a simoom, and does its best to scare everybody and make 
everything shiver and shake and quake. It can be seen afar off, 
coming on blustering, black, and as bogey looking as it can make 
itself. Then it reaches us, and rains for ten minutes, or, perhaps, by 
a great effort, half an hour. This is its usual course. It bullies and 
blusters, and tries to terrify by putting on a formidable and dismally 
forel)oding appearance, and ends by a brief and impotent perform- 
ance. Rain is not much of an element here. Nobody cares for it, 
or depends upon it, or expects anything from it. W^hen it threatens 
most, it is not even relied upon to lay the dust. It progresses in 
power, however, and, if it only perseveres, may yet achieve success. 

Irrigation is the thing in Colorado. It produces prolific results. 
They raise fine crops by irrigation; and there is no reason why they 
should not raise a fine race of men, as the latter irrigate themselves 



FROM VIirCACO 10 VICTORIA. 15 

even more copiously tlian they irrigate the soil. In the East they 
go out " to see a man." In Colorado they " irrigate." " I^et us irri- 
gate " is the way in whicli tlu>y invite you to practice at the bar. 

The Windsor Hotel is palatial in every sense of the word; and in 
views of it, on its envelopes and letter-heads, it appears with the 
lofty, sTiow-clad Rocky Mountains for a background. Nothing can 
be finer than that point of view; but there is another, which reminds 
us of nothing so much as of that single step which Thomas Paine and 
Napoleon the Great and other celebrities have told us divides the 
sublime from the ridiculous, — on one side, the magnificent snowy 
range; on the other, hovels. " Ermine and vermin, magnificence 
and rats." 

In one direction we look out I'rom this regal hotel upon the mar- 
velous white-hooded mountains; in another, we look across the street 
on hovels and shanties, and low, mean, rickety buildings most anti- 
palatial, and yards of ill aspect and noisome. In front of us is the 
son of siumy Italy, unclean, uncaiuiy looking, unsavory and altogether 
unattractive, — not the son of ancient Rome, nor of the Rome of IMaz- 
zini and Garibaldi. This unwashed, unshorn foreigner pi-esides over 
a fruit stall of unsteady understandings, of which it is impossible to 
suspect good things. These are contrasts inseparable from new 
cities, which time will amend. Denver can stand contrasts like these, 
although it can not be said to care for them, and is fast getting rid 
of them, and is a city to be desired of man even after everything 
has been said against it which can fairly be said. We have come 
from Chicago to Kansas City, 489 miles; Kansas City to Newton, 
201 miles; Newton to La JuTita, 370 mil<>s; La .Tunta to Denver, 
184 miles; a total of 1,244 miles. 

Wednesday, July 30th. We leave Denver, altitude 5,200 feet, 
at 11 A. M., and at 2:40 p. m. arrive at Manitou, eighty miles distant, 
altitude 6,370 feet. We retrace part of the way we have come 
seventy-five miles to Colorado Springs, and transfer to a branch line 
of five miles to Manitou, where we take a drive of about si.\ miles, 
going first to Williams Canon. It is marvelous to see how the 
wind and the rain have scooped out, torn and chipped, mined and 
undermined, these immense walls of rock. I make an attempt to 
climb to the " Cave of the Winds," which is near the summit at one 
side of the canon; but, after climbing nearly to the top, find it too 
hot work, and content myself with taking in the various views from 
the point attained, and make a leisurely descent. 

The seductive advertising card of this cave apprises me of what I 



16 



NOTES OF A TRIP 




Williams Canon. 



FROM CHICAGO TO VICTOR [A. 



17 



have missed: "This cave is not equale.l by atiy attraction in the 

State. Aladdin's himp never disclosed such wonderful scenerv. It 

is an elfin ramble, and the centre of scenic beauty." Upon \vhich 

followed details of scenery. Having read the "Thousand Nights 

and One Night," I distrusted this card and its amazing claims, and 

clung to my faith in the splendid incredibilities of the magical lamp. 

Having wandered for miles in the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, I 

doubted of more wonderful caves. 

After exploring the canon and picking up specimens which would 

make the heart of the geologist leap 

for joy, I rest upon a huge boulder, 

and pore upon the brook which 

babbles by, until a shower sends me 

for shelter to the hut at the foot 

of the pathway to the cave. AVhile 

waiting for my companions to return, 

a youth inquires his way to the cave, 

and I play amateur guide, and direct 

him. He sets off at a high rate of 

speed, and does some fast walkino-. 

I put to immediate use my small 

knowledge of mountain air and of 

climbing these heights, and hail liiin 

with the startling information that 

he must restrain himself, or he will 
drop down breathless, and never 
reach the top, and may even fail 
to be " interested " in " the subse- 
quent proceedings," including the 
rapidity with which he may leach 
the bottom by new and hitherto 
unexplored ways. Being made to understand that he can not climb 
high and fast in this rarefied air, and that it will take all the breath 
he has to go slowly and high, he nurses his breath and ascends. 

Then we drive up the Ute Pass, another canon, and a higlnvav to 
Leadvilie before railroads abolished it as a highway, and superseded 
the immerous teams which traversed it. Leadvilie, from a mininir 
camp, rose to be a great mining city, and needed and was provided 
with a railway, but not by way of the Ute Pass. We drove as far as 
Rainbow Falls, the chief glory and attraction of this canon, and well 
worth a visit. We scrambled about the rocks at its foot, gettinn- near 

2 




18 



NOTES OF A TRIP 



and good views ; but, as there was no sun at the time, no rainbows 
could be seen. Afterward we drove on the trail to Pike's Peak as far 
as the Iron Ute Spring, and tasted its healing waters in the natural 
state, and also as manufactured into lemonade. Previously we had 
visited and tasted the other mineral springs, five in number, two of 
them close together, but of widely different qualities. Carbonate and 
sulphate of soda prevail in all these springs, including the Ute, and 




Pike s Peak Tiaii, 

carbonate of magnesia in five of them. The waters in some effer- 
vesce very freely, and bubble up in unlimited supplies. 

Pike's Peak is 14,147 feet above the level of the sea. Snow lies 
on the top all the year round. The United States Government has 
a sio-nal station on the top in connection with the Weather Bureau 



FROM CHICAGO TO VICTORIA. 



19 



in Washington, — Old Probabilities, or more familiarly known to us 
all as " Old Probs." It is twelve miles by foot and bridle path to 
the summit, and during the sunmier parties are made up early every 
morning, who accomplish the trip there and back on horseback in 
one day. By looking long and carefully and training the eye to the 
work, we discern, as specks in the distance, horses and riders thread- 
ing their way down the mountain. The Pike's Peak railway is being 
built to the top, which will increase the distance to thirty miles, 
but will make the trip one of ease and pleasure, and less of labor and 
fatigue than it is now. This railway will mount two thousand feet 
higher than the Lima and Oroya railroad in Peru. Its entire length 
will be a succession of complicated curves and grades, with no piece 
of straight track more than three hundred feet in length. 

Thursday, July 31st. AVe start early, with a programme made 
out for all day, and take a carriage drive of over thirty miles to the 
Garden of the Gods, Glen Eyrie, Colorado Springs, and North and 
South Cheyenne Canons. 
A caj^acious hamper 
jammed full of various 
supplies relieves us of 
all apprehensions on the 
score ^of commissariat 
until supper time, which 
is the hour at which we 
purpose to be back. We 
enter the Garden of the 
Gods by the south en- 
trance, instead of by the 
gateway, as on my first 
visit, a few years ago. 
*' Balanced Rock," close 
to the entrance, first at- 
tracts the eye. It is 

about fifty feet high. Balanced Rock. 

thirty feet thick at its greatest breadth, stands on a point of about 
three feet, and w-eighs many tons. 

The garden is about two miles in length and one in width, and 
grows only rocks of wondrous form. It would take many days to 
thoroughly explore it, and see it, as it deserves to be seen, in all its 
details. Such an exploration would be replete with pleasure and 
constant surprises. We drive very slowly through it, stopping every 




20 



NOTES OF A TRIP 



now and again to get a closer and longer view of some marvel, or to 
look beyond the garden to the mighty and wondrous range of mount- 
ains alongside, stretching away far out of sight. All kinds of gro- 
tesque figures in rock meet the sight, — old man, toad-stools, hooded 
figures, seals, frogs, deer's head, Mother Grundy, dog's head, lion, 
Tower of Babel, elephant. Cathedral Rock, and many more catalogued 
in guide books ; but no guide book nor any description can convey 
an adequate idea of this astonishing garden. 




Garden of the Gods. 



We pass out at the gateway, which is perhaps the crowning 
wonder of the place. It is a veritable gateway, of prodigious size 
and imposing altitude and appearance, minus the gate. As far as we 
can see, and one can see far in this clear atmosphere, we keep look- 
ing back at these majestic portals to this garden of giant wonders. 

Glen Eyrie has a canon which, in comparison with the great 
canons, may be described as a baby canon. If it may l)e permitted to 



FROM CHICAGO TO VICTORIA. 



21 



speak of a canon in this way, it has something about it gentler, 
quieter, more refined, more delicate, more human, and that can be 
more easily grasped, than the larger canons. I saw it some years 
ago, but could not see it to-day. All the ground about the entrance 
has been preempted, and occupied as private property. A gentle- 
man's residence and grounds bar the way to this natural wonder, 
hide it from view, and make it a mystery, — a suppressed, secluded, 
imprisoned wonder, instead of an open marvel. It is an outrage to 




Gardon of the Gods 



permit any one to make private property of scenery like this. As 
well preempt Niagara Falls, or demand toll for a sight of ocean. 
There is a legend that a shrewd citizen preempted the top of Pike's 
Peak, and that much persuasive power was required to convince him 
that the United States Government was a " biger man " than he was. 
He was ultimately compelled practically to assent to the precedence 
of the claim of the government over that of any citizen. 

We were permitted to drive about the beautiful grounds of Glen 
Eyrie, in part shut in by the Rocky Mountains, and on another side 
by perpendicular natural walls of great altitude. High up in these 



23 NOTES OF A TRIP 

walls, 1 noticed the huge nest of an eagle, supposed to be the same 
nest I saw on a former visit, as it was in the same spot. Some natural 
columns of rock in these grounds are about one hundred feet high, 
and at a distance look like monuments erected by man. As we drive 
from Glen Eyrie to Colorado Springs we get distant views of the 
Garden of the Gods; and the range of the Rocky Mountains, as far 
as the eye can reach, comes into full and splendid view. 

Colorado Springs is four square miles in area, is five miles from 
the mountains, and at an altitude of 6,023 feet. It is about fifteen 
years old, has a population of over 6,000, and is beautiful with trees 
and flowers and small parks. Through the streets, which are wide, 
and lined with shade trees, water flows freely, and in unlimited 
volume, in irrigating ditches. The water supply for irrigating and 
drinking purposes is said to be practically unlimited, and, coming, as 
it does, from lofty mountain heights, gives a pressure which makes 
fire engines superfluous. We drive through a broad street, with two 
rows of trees in the centre, and a row on each side, and which is 
intersected by several small parks. 

The drive to the Cheyenne canons was mainly over a road by a 
pleasant brook, and sheltered by trees. We drove nearly as far as 
the carriage drive extended in South Cheyenne Canon, and then took 
lunch in a wood cabin, with the clear waters of the canon flowing on 
both sides of us. It was a hot and tiresome walk to the Seven Falls 
of the Cheyenne; but the wonders and the beauties of the way, and 
the culminating sight of the Seven Falls, made us glad that we had 
not missed a foot of the distance. In a succession of seven falls, 
the sweet mountain stream makes its descent from the mountain top 
to the bed of the canon. At the foot of the lowest fall, the topmost 
ones are not in sight. I climbed to where I could see the whole 
series above and below; but this was not half way to the top. I had 
enough of climbing, and rested and made a leisurely descent, and 
lay on a boulder at the foot of the lowest fall, and in front of it, listen- 
ing to its voice and enjoying its coolness, until rejoined by the rest 
of the company. 

Afterward we drove about two miles up North Cheyenne CanoTi 
in wooded ways by a delightful stream, the bed of which is chiefly 
a series of little falls. The two canons are a little less than a mile 
apart. In both, the mountains rise to a great height on either 
side, and huge and curious shapes of rock arrest attention. The 
North Canon was the finest drive, and was more beautiful with trees. 
On our return in South Canon, as we passed the hut at which 



FBOM CHICAGO TO VICTORIA. 



23 



we had lunched, it was being- taken possession of for the night by 
a party who were camping- out. We saw more than one team, each 
with a paity who had all the lequisites for camping out. To sleep 
in this vagabond, Bohemian way in iIk^sc woiidHrliil onfions, seemed 
a new kind of pleasure. 



After a drive of nearly 
ten hours, we got back 
to our hotel at Mani- 
tou, ready for supper 
and bed. The air of 
Colorado creates an ap- 
petite, and weighs the 
eyelids down. We 
drink in this fine air; 
we revel in it; we tak(^ 
in new life from it. 
Whatever the days 
may be, the nights are 
cool ; and the air we 
have breathed, enjoyed 
and exulted in, and the 
cool night, shut down 
our eyelids, and com- 
pel refreshing sleep ; 
and, when morning 
comes, we wake to 
bounding impulses, 
feel as if we must skip 
and bound and play, 
and are ready and 
eager for another day 
of vigorous exercise. 

For miles and miles 
we ride alongside these 
snow-capped sublimi- 
ties which form the 
backbone of the conti- 
nent. Patiently they stand, and time chips away at them with a 
patience equal to their own. Change is on them as on all things. 
Talk of everlasting hills: that is so much nonsense. Time smiles at 
that, as he persistently and imperceptibly keeps on demolishing 




24 



NOTES OF A TRIP 



them. Age, rain, wind and snow, destructive forces which are only 
creative forces under another name, chip otf boulders, roll them to 
the plain, g-rind them to fine dust, and scatter that dust broadcast. 
The process can be seen as one travels hundreds of miles in and 
through, over and alongside, this enormous mountain range. 




North Cheyenne Canon. 

What marvels these mountains hold ! what tremendous abysses ! 
what awe-inspiring altitudes ! what raging torrents ! what gleammg 
waters in pool, rivulet, fall and lake ! Now this mountain land is 
beautiful with trees and flowers; now bleak and barren above the 
timber line and line of vegetation, and with rents and crevices of 
unknown depths and dimensions, tilled with snow which never 



FROM CHICAGO TO VrCTORIA. 25 

appears to decrease in volume. What lessons may be read here by 
the man who brings to these scenes a receptive, responsive soul ! 
Here the wisest may find more wisdom; the boldest, fear; the gayest, 
maddest, wildest, some touch of sobriety of thought; the saddest and 
most sorrow laden, some oblivion, or balm, or patience. 

" If thnu art worn mid liard beset 
With sorrows tliat thou wouldst forirct; 
If thou wouldst read a lesson that will keep 
Tliy heart from fainting and thy soul from sU'c>p, — 
Go to the hills: no tears 
Dim the sweet look that nature wears." 

What histories are in these hills ! What sermons in these stones ! 
What books in these mountain brooks! He to whom these mountains 
have not a language, is past all reproof, or help, or inspiration. 
Under their high influence, life does not look at all a joke, nor a 
shadow, nor a vain show, but real and earnest. Clouds obscure their 
summits, or sail over their face, rainstorms rage midway upon them, 
snowstorms in summer add to the snow which covers their loftiest 
peaks, — all visible to observers who stand in sunshine below. 

An impression appears to prevail abroad, that bigness is the 
chief characteristic of the sights of this land. The foreigner only 
hears, or affects to hear, of big rivers, lakes and mountains; and 
sees, or aifects to see, these alone. I do not wish to assist in keep- 
ing up the impression that bigness is a peculiarity of our scenery. I 
read in books and newspapers of other lands, that we have nothing 
like Lake Geneva, in Switzerland, or " lovely Loch Achray," or other 
lochs of Scotland, or lakes of England, which, in addition to their 
other attractions, have become a part of imperishable song, and 
unforgetable history, and entrancing legend. Yet, we have in the 
East, Lakes George, Champlain, Memphremagog, Seneca, Geneva 
and many another; and in the West and in these mountains, count- 
less small lakes of surpassing beauty. It is not thus intended to dis- 
avow or belittle those mighty inland oceans, larger in area than 
European kingdoms ; those great unsalted seas that bear on their 
broad bosoms the rich argosies of commerce, the priceless products 
of fertile and sovereign States; but to show that we have also lesser 
glories in lakes and lakelets of ineff'able beauty, of surpassing loveli- 
iiess, which need not veil their beauties nor pale their boast before 
the most vaunted of their rivals of other lands. 

Friday, August 1st. We leave Manitou at 8:45 a. m., for Salt 
Lake City, via Denver & Rio Grande Railroad and Colorado Springs 



36 



NOTES OF A TRir 



and Pueblo, a trip of GtiG miles. From Colorado Springs to Salt Lake 
City we have buffet sleeping cars, in which lunches can he procured at 
any hour. We cross the Arkansas often. At one point there is a 
submerged railway track. The Arkansas has fancies, and indulges 

them. It sud- 
denly changed 
its course and 
went by rail, 
'il and n o 1) o d y 
afterward cared 
to go the same 
way, or could 
have gone if he 
had so cared. 
I- ! Its waters flow 
over rails and 
sleepers where 
once trains ran. 
It is in c o n - 
venient and ex- 
pensive ; but 
the river would 
have its own 
willful way. 

An observa- 
tion car is put 
on at Canon 
City, that we 
may sit outside 
and see all the 
wonders of the 
Grand Canon 
of the Arkan- 
sas, and es- 
p e c i a 1 1 y the 

The Royal Gorge. Royal GorgC. 

There is a blazing iiot sun shining fiercely down upon us, and the 
wind, which is a little unruly, blows right on us smoke and cindei'S 
from the engine, and dust from wherever it can find it, and it appears 
to find plenty of it. We heroically sit it out, however, till we 
have passed in review the glories and grandeurs of the Gi'and 




FROM CinCAUO TO VIOTORIA. 27 

Canon, and liave looked on its greatest sight of all, — the Royal 
Gorge. Here the Arkansas and the railway are compressed to a 
breadth of only about thirty feet, with perpendicular rocks on each 
side, 3,000 feet high. The railway for a short distance is suspended 
over the Arkansas on " an iron bridge built lengthwise with tlie 
river, and suspended from steel trusses mortised into the rock walls 
upon each side." At this point on one side there is a rent in the 
rock extending from top to bottom. 

From Salida, 14 •' miles from our starting point of this morning, 
the road runs in one direction to r.oadville, and in the other to Salt 
Lake City. At Manitou the altitude was 6,370 feet ; at Colorado 
Springs, five miles from Manitou, 0,023 feet ; at Pueblo, forty-five 
miles from Colorado Springs, 4,608 feet ; at Canon City, forty-one 
miles from Pueblo, 5,344 feet ; at Salida, fifty-six miles from Cafion 
City, 7,050 feet. From Salida wo go on ascending, and look uj) to 
altitudes to which we must go, and down upon depths from which 
we have come. We do not go on a level, but go up ; do not go 
straight forward, but run round and round. We look up, and see 
high above us, but leading in an opposite direction to our present 
course, the track by which we shall shortly go. We look down, and 
see far below, but in an opposite direction to our present course, the 
path by which we have come. We go many miles circuitously in 
order to make one mile of straio:ht-forward advance. At one hiffh 
point, the mountains near by frame a view far below, and which 
we have left far behind, of a most spacious and beautiful valley, lying 
in sunlight, and guarded by snow-capped mountains. 

Most of the way there are two engines. As we ascend, the 
engines puff as if their breath were going out, and the cars strain 
and creak as if the labor of it was physical pain. AVe look up to 
amazing altitudes to which we are to ascend, as appears from the 
outline of the track, which distance reduces to the dimensions of a 
goat path ; and down, with wonderment, to the dcjith fnmi which we 
have come, marked by the thin streak of the railway track far below. 

We get within a mile walk of the top of Mount Ouray, the alti- 
tude of which is 14,043 feet. In this clear and deceptive atmos- 
phere, it seems only a few minutes' walk to the top. Snow lies on 
it. Snow lies alongside of us at one place. From lofty ))oints of 
V'antage, we get views of sweet valleys lying in clear sunlight, 
hemmed in by mountains with snow-clad summits ; far off, but seem- 
ingly close at hand ; so near to vision, so far away in actual distance. 
There are mountains nearer and lower, timber clad ; others with trees 



38 NOTES OF A TRIP 

stripped of branches and foliage, bare, and strewed on the ground 
like stalks of wheat or corn, or like bare poles left standing. These 
are the remains of forest fires. Snow-sheds become common sights. 
We pass through many of them before attaining Marshall Pass, at 
an altitude of 10,760 feet. From this divide the waters flow in one 
direction to the Pacific Ocean, and in the other to the Gulf of Mexico. 

There are only ten minutes to take in the view. We are above 
the timber line. Vegetation exists in lower regions. We look down 
on lofty mountains and lovely valleys, — in every direction mountains 
and valleys, both at an elevation of thousands of feet, and both 
beneath us. There are four thin strips of terrace below, which are 
the lines of track by which we have ascended, and we are to descend 
on the other side on similar lines. Flower dealers assail us ; but we 
waste not a precious minute of the ten at our disposal, and brush 
aside ail smaller things, and adhere steadily to sight-seeing. 

The ten minutes do not seem as long as ten seconds. We seem 
to have had just a glimpse of this wonderland when summoned to 
resume our seats and our iourney and commence the descent. 
Curves and altitudes affect mercurial, excitable people. Two lively 
ladies, who have been keeping up a constant excitement, and gener- 
ally bobbing around and making things lively, and having solid 
chunks of fun, are overcome, and lie kicking and screaming in the 
car, when we return to it after our ten minutes' sight-seeing is over. 
These ladies were seriously affected, and were made worse by a 
crowd of amateur nurses of both sexes, each of whom had separate 
opinions and different remedies, mostly absurd and hurtful. A 
doctor was discovered at last, who aided in the recovery of the worst 
case, and the other recovered without a doctor. Quiet people usu- 
ally escape these painful faints. 

We are alongside the Gunnison river, and night and the Black 
Canon are approaching. I catch glimpses of canon and river as I lie 
in my berth. We cross and re-cross the river. The stream runs 
fast, and looks dark ; and the lofty walls of the canon, two or three 
thousand feet high, impress me with the idea that they could make a 
night of their own if night were not. Gradually I get too tired for 
sight-seeing, and give it up for the day, and try to sleep. Think of 
sleeping in this magnificent canon ; but the mountain air insists 
upon sleep. Thus I miss countless wonders, among them the red- 
hued Currecanti Needle, described as an abrupt and isolated pinnacle 
which has all the grace and symmetry of a Cleopatra obelisk ; but, 
judging from a Cleopatra Needle which I have seen, and pictures of 



FROM CHICAGO TO VI G TORI A. 



29 




30 



NOTES OF A TRIP 



Im: 



m 




FROM CHICAGO TO VlCTOlilA. 



31 




32 



NOTES OF A T.1UP 




Black Canon of the Gunnison. 



FROM CHICAGO TO VICTORIA. 33 

the Currecanti Needle, the needle of the Black Canon tliffers from the 
needle of Egypt, as nature from art. 

Next morning, Saturday, August 2d, as we whirl round curves, 
washing becomes a fine art. Now I hold on to the washstand with 
one hand, now with both hands. I brace myself against the 
car, I bump against the water cooler. Washing on the stormy 
x\tlantic, washing on the crook(Mlest road I have ever yet been on, is 
nothing to this. Crossing the Alleghanies on roads famous for curves 
and bends, of horseshoe and other varieties, is nowhere in comparison, 
" Any fool can build a straight road," said a Pennsylvania expert ;. 
" but it takes an engineer to build a crooked one." The engineer of 
a crooked turn must have expended all his genius on these curves ', 
nothing more in the way of curvature on the spine of this continent 
can be imagined or endured. 

We come upon washouts, and see where the road would have 
lain if the mountain torrents had not preempted it without law or 
leave, and in bold defiance of vested rights and the Constitution of 
the United States. The river holds its way over the old railway 
track, and we meekly pass by on a new one, which in the future 
tfie raging waters, in some mad, whimsical fit, may elect to occupy. 
Then the railway can again go up higher. Excelsior is a o-ood 
motto for railway companies in this land of untamed streams and 
lofty hills. We pass over J 00 miles of what has been described as 
billowy desert, and the surface has a distant resemblance to the 
billows of ocean ; but even this scenery is shut in by mountain 
ranges which take it completely out of the realm of the common- 
place. 

Six hundred and twenty-four miles from Denver we enter Castle 
Gate. This entrance, or gateway, to Price River Canon, has two 
huge red pillars, one 500, and the other 550, feet high. We are 
now in the Wahsatch range, and are constantly in sight of huo-e 
and curious forms of rocks bearing resemblances to man and liis 
works which are common to all cafions which I have seen. We 
attain the summit of the Walisatch Mountains, and, passing down 
Soldier Canon, the red narrows, and the beautiful and allurino- 
Spanish Fork Canon, emerge into Utah valley, bounded by mount- 
ains on every side. 

The first outlying Mormon settlements have small, hut-like hab- 
itations, in which it is impossible to imagine comfort of any but 
the lowest order ; they do not appear to be more than kennels in 
which to sleep. All this changes rapidly, however, and habitable 
3 



34 



]\-OTES OF A TIUP 




Currecanti Needle, Black Canon. 



FROM CHICAGO TO VICTOUIA. 



35 



and attractive building-s begin to appear. The fields everywhere 
^ive evidence of thrift and industry. The Mormons and th(i Cliinese 
seem to have the capacity to get the most out of the soil. Water is 
utilized all over the valley for purposes of irrigation. Where man 
is his own providence in the use of water on fields, the results look 
tio})ical and profuse. 







^ 



At Springville, a llourislniiL; piaui', li^-i nines iioiii Denver, I 
notice a prominent store with tliis legend thereon, " Springville Co- 
op," and find that it is a Mormon co-operative store. There are 
ni) real co-operative stores here, nor elsewhere in Utah, on the En- 
glish plan. They are simply firms with a numerous partnership. 
The members inherit all the spoils. The customers, who are not 



36 NOTES OF A TRIP 

members, do not share in the profits on the same plan, nor to the 
same extent, as in England. 

At Provo, we are 689 miles from Denver, and children swarm 
on the platform with fruit to sell at bankrupt rates. It is offered 
at an alarming sacrifice when the moment arrives for the train to 
move. The fine, fresh waters of Utah Lake are in sight. The 
valley is a scene of beauty, shut in by the snow-capped hills. It 
is watered by the clear waters of numerous mountain streams natural 



In Spanish ForK Canon. 

and artificial. The farms look like large gardens; grapes and fruits 
of all kinds abound. The pretty white houses peep out from amid 
forest trees or rich orchards of liberal area. The river Jordan flows 
from Utah Lake into Salt Lake; and beyond Provo, we run alongside 
of it, and keep near it, until we reach Salt Lake City, crossing it 
when coming in sight of the city, which, in the distance, seems 
like a beautiful forest, with houses here and there peeping out. It 
gradually ascends from the valley, and climbs the lower heights of 
the mountain range. It is more of a forest city than any which I 



FROM CHICAGO TO VIC TORT A. 



37 




38 NOTES OF A TRIP 

have seen; and, in itself and its location on the side of the hills, it 
would be called beautiful, anywhere. We can see from the train 
the Tabernacle, the Assembly Hall, the unfinished Temple and the 
higher buildino-s. 

From the city, the whole Salt Lake valley is in sight, and much 
of Salt Lake with its mountain islands. The valley is L^tah valley 
intensified. It is thoroughly irrigated and cultivated, and almost, 
if not completely, occupied by settlers. Wheat fields, hay fields, 
market gardens, cattle ranges, take up the available space. The 
climate is delightful. It is a land of sunshine and loveliness, where 
health and plenty cheer the industrious tiller of the soil. It has 
not been inaptly named " the Eden of the West." 

The Jordan is a dirty stream, and inspires me with no desire to 
be baptized in it. Wholly or in part, the Jordan, and streams of 
loftier source and clearer strain, are taken out of their original course 
and diverted through the city. Water flows next the sidewalks in 
every street, in some of which it is clear and rapid and always in 
considerable volume, and in many places, especially in the best resi- 
dence streets, looks as if it were a natural stream flowing in its own 
bed. The saints do not much practice watering streets, and the 
dust is simply inconceivable. Why people so sensible in many 
other respects should endure such a permanent nuisance and abom- 
ination as this dust, is a mystery of faith which I fail to penetrate. 

I pass the Amelia Palace, large and imposing, at one time the 
residence of the favorite wife of Brigham Young, and now the resi- 
dence of the present chief of the Mormon church. President Taylor. 
On the opposite side of the street are the Bee-Hive and the Lion 
House, once residences of Biigham Young. The Lion House now 
appears to be used as the principal business ofiice of the church. 
The Bee-Hive is surmounted by an imitation of a bee-hive; and lions, 
in stone, lie on each side above the entrance to the Lion House. 

In continuation of these, on the same street, and on the same side 
of the street, and in the same block, are the offices of the Deseret 
^ews, the official organ of the church, and the most ably conducted 
paper in the Territory. Next to these, and continued on a cross street 
opposite the Temple, are the tithing houses, where the saints pay 
their tithes in cash or kind. The unfinished temple is surrounded by 
a high wall, and there was no admittance at the hour at which I 
passed it. " Commenced April Gth, 1850," is inscribed on it. 

On one side of a tall, long and well-built brick building of 
spacious breadth, I read " Z. C. M.I," which, being interpreted, 



FROM CHICAGO TO VICTORIA. 39 

nieaiieth " Zion Co-o|)eiative Mercantile Institution." It is more 
iamiliaily called by saints and sinners the '•'Co-op." This legend 
adorns its front, "Holiness to the Lord." It does business to the 
extent ot" millions of dollars anTuially. It is not co-operative in the 
English sense of that word, but is a partnership concern, two or three 
rich partnei's holding a controlling interest, and the balance of the 
stock being scattered among a large number of small holders. It 
has a ^eputation for keeping on sale good articles, and competes for 
business against regular merchants on the regular plan of competi- 
tion, under the usual conditions, and with the usual organi/atif)n and 
methods of any ordinary business house. 

At one time this institution had a practical monopoly ; but the 
gentile from without and schism from within the church undermined 
its power. The Walker Brothers, four in number, descendants of a 
Mormon, and themselves Mormons, defied and denied the power of 
Brigham Young. The issue was on tithes. The prophet thought 
that they paid too little, and demanded more ; but they refused to 
})ay anything, and took the ground that the office of the prophet and 
the church was spiritual, not temporal; that the church should not 
command in commerce and ])olitics ; and that in civil government 
the United States was supieme. 

In despite of Mormon influence, the Walkers built up an oppo- 
sition trade to the "great Co-op," and have become wealthy and 
influential, among other holdings owning the Walker House, the best 
hotel in the city ; and I was told that they were owners of the 
Walker Opera House, but have since seen it stated in print that this 
is owned by the McKenzie Reform Club, a gentile organization. In 
the battle between the Walkers and the church. Mormons were 
forbidden to trade at the store owned by the former, and thereupon 
these lines became popular : — 

" Slotlier, may I no out to shop ? 
O j'es, my dailing daughter ; 
But be sure to go to the great Co-op, 
And don't go near the Walker." 

I ascend to the top of theAValker House, and get a splendid view 
(jf the city. It has long overpassed the limits which its original 
founders evidently foresaw for it, if I may infer so much from its 
having extended beyond the cemetery which lies higher up on the 
mountain slope. Much farther away still, and in the same direction, 
lie the United States fort and barracks. The city has kept strag- 



40 



NOTES OF A TRIP 




FROM CIIICAOO TO VrCTORIA. 41 

gliiig; out toward the fort, and tho two are nearer iieiglibors now than 
when first thev mad(^ what promised not to be a pleasant acquaint- 
ance. It is claimed that the city streets are twice as wide and the 
blocks twice as long as in other cities, a claim which any one who 
walks them will not feel disposed to contest. These streets are 
lined with shade trees, and the residence portion is made beautiful 
with trees, lawns and flowers, and clear, l)abblino- brooks. 

There are two opera houses, one of Mormon origin and control ; 
the other owned by Mormon skeptics, who, as already explained, held 
the inadmissible and heterodox tenet that the church had no right of 
control in temporal affairs, but only in spiritual ones. Mormons will 
not go to the heterodox opera house : gentiles will go to either. Con- 
sequently, to insure the presence of both saints and sinners, a 
shrewd manager, having ducats in view, engages the Mormon opera 
house. " Mascotte," by the same company that I had seen playing 
it in the splendid Tabor Opera House, in Denver, was being played 
here. Wishing to see a Mormon play-house, I accepted a courteous 
invitation, and was assigned a stas:e box from which I could have a 
good view of the house, a most substantial one, like all Mormon 
public works. [t is !S0 b\' 174 feet, with a seating capacity of 

i,roo. 

Sunday, August 3d. I was urged to make an excursion to Salt 
r^ake, and bathe in its waters, and told wonders about the invigorat- 
ing results of such a trip and bath ; but I preferred to go to the 
Tabernacle. This building stands in what is known as the Temple 
block, in which also stand the Assembly Hall and the unfinished 
Temple. It is elliptical, and roofed with a dome of the same form. 
The latter has been aptly described as resembling an upturned boat. 
The Tabernacle is 150 feet wide, 250 feet long, and 90 feet high. 
The organ was pealing forth solemn music as we entered. We took 
seats two or three rows from the front of the gallery, at the end 
facing the organ, orchestra and ministering saints at the other end. 
The organ is, I believe, the largest and finest on the continent save 
one ; and the well-trained choir, two hundred in number, is said to 
be the best west of New York. 

The leader appeared to go about his duties in a business-like way, 
as if he were wielding his baton at a festival or a grand opera. There 
are twenty very large entrances, fourteen for tlie ground floor, and 
six for the gallery. The gallery goes all round, heaving only space 
at one end for the organ and orchestra. In front of the organ sits 
the choir, ladies on one side facing gentlemen on the other side. In 



42 NOTES OF A TRIP 

the centre, where the auditorium ends on the ground floor, stands the 
sacrament table, a long table with marble top. Behind it there is a 
bench of the same length, with seats for about twenty officiating 
bishops. Behind this, and of the same length, rise three crimson- 
covered rows with crescent-shaped stand for Bible and hymn book 
in the centre of each row. These seats are for the highest dignitaries 
of the church, the president, councilors, presidents of seventies, 
bishops, etc. On each side of the first of these rows, reposes an 
iron lion, painted to resemble marble. Still farther away, on each 
side, repose duplicates of these. 

Behind the dignitaries, and higher up, is the choir, and farther 
back still, against the wall, the huge oigan. Some of the occupants 
of the crimson-covered rows were dressed in black, others wore ordi- 
nar\' business suits of light colors. The seats for the audience, suffi- 
cient to accommodate 1^,000, were plain wooden ones, with wooden 
backs not too high. A sketch of a bee-hive adorned the wall behind 
us. With this exception, the walls were bare. The roof had two 
skylights, and was festooned with evergreens, and with flowers made 
of paper. The congregation, in point of intelligence and appearance, 
seemed to be the average congregation usually to be met with in 
churches of any denomination, except that it was not so showily and 
gaudily dressed. Fans fluttered as they do in the hot season in all 
churches and theatres. 

The service was a funeral one, in memory of " two deceased serv- 
ants of God, Bishop Leonard W. Hardy and President W. W. 
Taylor ; " * the latter one of the presidents of seventies, and son of 
the President of the church, John Taylor. Bishop Hardy had died 
in harness, full of years and honors, at the ripe age of seventy-eight 
years and seven months. He was one of two selected to go with 
President Wilford Woodruff, when, on the death of the Prophet 
Smith, and his brother Hyrum, he was appointed by the Council of 
the Apostles to preside over the church in England. President Will- 
iam Taylor was a young man of about thirty, who had made a repu- 
tation for himself as an active and able worker in the church, and a 
member of the municipal government. 

The Mayor and City Council of Salt Lake City attended the 
services in a body, and accompanied the remains of their respected 
co-laborer to their last resting place. The bodies had lain on view 
from 8 A, M. till 10 a. m., and when we entered at the latter hour^ 
the last of the crowds were passing in front of the sacrament 

* Deaeret Evening News, Monday, Augaist 4, 1884. 



FROM CHICAGO TO VICTORTA. 43 

table, viewing tlie bodies, which h^y tliere in caskets covered with 
flowers. 

The organ ceased, anil at 10:10 A. >i., President George Q. Can- 
non, who conducted the services, gave out the liynm — 

" God moves iii a mysterious wa^'," 

which was sung by the choir. President Josepli E. Taylor piiiyed, 
and the choir sang — 

"Nearer, my God, to thee." 

Then followed eulogies by President Wilford Woodruff, Bishop Rob- 
ert T. Burton, Piesident Jacob Gates, President A. M. Cannon, 
President Joseph F. Smith, and President George Q. Cannon. Then, 
in a quiet and sulidued tone, the head of the church. President John 
Taylor, closed with a few sentences of consolation and care for the 
living. The choir sang — 

_ "In the sweet by and by." 

The congregation stood up, and President H. S. Eldredge pronounced 
the benediction ; and the services, which had lasted over two hours, 
were ended. 

President George Q. Cannon announced the speakers, as I under- 
stood, without previous notice to them. As each was called, he 
stepped to the pulpit stand, in the centre of the low in which In- sat, 
and spoke from thence. Each excused himself as being unprepared, 
and as not having expected to be called upon, and said that he would 
only make a few remarks; and each ended with "for Jesus' sake 
Amen," — the last words uttered swiftly as the speaker retired to his 
seat, and not unlike a tired child ending its prayer. 

The impromptu speaking lacked fire, force, enthusiasm and lit- 
erary finish. No burst of eloquence enlivened the dead level of the 
talk. There was not even volubility at all times; but there was 
sameness and slowness, and, with nearly all, hesitations and long, 
painful pauses, as if the speaker might stick unexpectedly at any 
moment. The speeches were not grammatical, nor reasoned, nor 
pathetic: they were the speeches of plain men speaking, in plain, 
simple words, to plain men. Perhaps there was restraint in them. 
They were practical, and had a personal interest which held attention. 
They dwelt on the gain to the departed, which ought to be matter 
of rejoicing to the bereaved, rather than a cause for selfish grief. 
The departed had escaped from the evils of this life, and weie beyond 
the persecutions of the wicked and the power of death, ami .^ataii. 



44 NOTES OF A TRIP 

and sin, and were safe in a land brighter tiian day. The speaking 
was a kind of jubilation on these topics, which were insisted upon, 
and were undoubtedly believed, and, to a reasonable extent, exempli- 
fied. It was enforced, too, that death was sweet to the believer, and 
bitter to the unbeliever; death was held to have no power over the 
believer. 

There was very little in the services to distinguish them from 
those of any orthodox Christian church, and a slightly inattentive 
listener of such a church might have failed to discover that he had 
wandered from his own fold. 1 regret that I did not hear President 
Taylor at greater length. He is said to be an able speaker, which I 
can readily believe. President George Q. Cannon, too, has a reputa- 
tion which makes it unfair to judge him by one speech delivered 
under limited conditions. The same reasons should qualify criticism 
on all these speeches. Mormonism, I am advised, has able speakers 
and writers. Personally, I am unable to testify as to the speaking; 
but as to the writing, at least in the daily press, it is undeniable that 
the Deseret Evening JSFeios^ the oigan of the church, is edited with 
consummate ability. 

At the conclusion of the funeral services, the congregation were 
directed to keep in their seats till the funeral procession had filed 
out ; and the doors were shut to enforce this order. When the vast 
audience, numbering about 7,000, was finally allowed to depart, the 
perfect arrangements for egress enabled the great building to be 
emptied with the utmost ease and rapidity, and without crowding and 
hustling. Those on the ground floor, for the most part, moved out 
in a line as they had sat. 

The acoustic properties are perfect. During the services, people 
walked out and in and about, babies wailed in all directions, restless 
little ones roamed about at their own sweet will, no one making 
them afraid, an uneasy young man behind me kept clawing and 
kicking at the bench upon which I was seated ; and yet, though 
almost the entire length of the house from the speakers, I heard 
them fairly well, scarcely losing a word. On the ground floor a lady 
fainted, and was carried out at a side door, without the episode 
stopping the speaker, or preventing the audience from heaiing him. 

It was unbearably hot outside ; but the ventilation Wiis good, the 
doors were open, and, although little air was stirring, it was utilized, 
and the church was cool. Huge barrels of ice water stood on the 
ground floor on each side of the church, at the end near the official 
stands ; and little folks and big folks handed it round when needed, 



FROM CHICAGO TO VICTORIA. 45 

or thirsty saints and sinners walked up and refreshed themselves 
" when so dispoged." 

Nowhere have I seen such common sense in building a church, or 
in conducting a service. For spaciousness, coolness, comfort, ease 
in hearing, and convenience of exit in case of alarm, it surpasses all 
public buildings I have seen or of which I have heard. Happy little 
Mormons were not made to sit still when their little souls were 
weary for change. They walked about and changed their seats at 
will. The sweet humanity to children thus exhibited was new to me 
in churches. I thought of the weary hours of church service in 
which J had to sit rigid and bolt upright in my childhood days, and 
regretted that this touch of Mormon humanity had not then been 
infused into Christian orthodoxy. 

The Tabernacle is strongly built to last, like the Temple, but is 
not as fine nor as imposing as the Temple, which is built of granite, 
as if to resist an attack, and stand defiantly forever in spite of man 
and time and the elements. It is 117 feet wide, 18G feet long, and 200 
feet high, with walls sixteen feet thick at its base, and nine feet nine 
inches thick above the surface. Moons and stars are carved on its 
exterior, and there is still similar work to be done. It is far from 
completion. It is not to be used as a place of worship, but is to take 
the place of the present Endowment House, in which the secret 
services of the church are held, — services which, so far as we liave 
any light respecting them, appear to resemble the methods and 
ceremonies of the leading secret societies, with variations of detail 
and of ritual. 

The Temple is built as, of old, temples were builded to God, — 
no marble front for show, and the less conspicuous parts of the 
building of poorer material and meaner detail, as if God could be 
swindled with a front view. The Mormon Temple is good all through 
and everywhere ; there is no slop work ; the same material and the 
same careful finish and thorough workmanship exist uniformly in every 
part : it is just as good in the rear as in the front, in some out-of-the- 
way corner as in any part most prominent and most exposed to 
public view. It is a piece of genuine, honest work ; it is real, and 
there is no pretense about it. The builders evidently believed 
in God, and that he is not a God of shams and pretense, which but 
few builders of churches in modern days appear to do. Nearly all 
these modern builders palm off on heaven fine fronts, and mean 
details elsewhere, as if heaven could be taken in with appearances 
and mere outside looks. The Assemblv Hall, a granite building of 



46 NOTES OF A TRIP 

fine proportions, and the smallest of the three buildings in the 
Temple block, is for religious and other meetings, the same as those 
held in the Tabernacle. 

We drove all over the city, past places already named, the 
tithing houses, through the Eagle Gate entrance to Brigham 
Young's property, to heights from whence fine views of the city 
could be obtained, through most attractive residence streets, past 
comfortable-looking and elegant homes of Mormons. Water flows 
plenteonsly in every street ; yet dust covers everybody and every- 
thing. 

At one beautiful Mormon home we stopped. The owner and his 
wife were in the front. Our driver called out to him that I wished 
to see his hawthorn trees, which stood at diiferent points in his 
grounds, and he came forward and courteously invited me in. I 
apologized for intruding upon him, and explained that I was an 
Englishman resident in this country the laigest half of my life, and 
wished to show my daughter, who accompanied me, the hawthorn of 
the hedges of her father's native land. 

" I am English, too," he said. " What part of England are you 
from?" 

I answered : " Northumberland; but I have not seen it for twenty- 
seven years." 

He added : " I am from Yorkshire, and my wife is from London." 

The Hawthorn was not the wild Hawthorn of the " loanins " of my 
native county, but that with the double flower. He had imported it 
from England. It served me for a text on which to expatiate to the 
" Young America " by my side on the glory and the freshness of 
English May, and I did not omit to glance incidentally at primrose 
dells, just to show that after all there are some things in the mother 
country. He made me test his lawn, so soft, so velvety, it seemed 
almost a sin to use it. I never trod on lawn so perfect, so mossy 
soft and yielding and elastic. He said that he played bowls on it. 

" You can not get the deep green of England," I said, "■ although 
you come very near it." 

He assented regretfully. 

The place was loveliness itself, with trailing vines, creepers, 
flowers, peerless lawn and beautiful trees. Two lines of creepers, 
forming two sides of a triangle, stretched from the porch to the 
street, Chinese pattern wise, but many times lovelier in colors than 
anything made by hand or machinery. His wife smiled when I said: 
" It is so beautiful, it must be a temptation to sin, and passers-by 



FROM CHICAGO TO VICTORIA. 47 

must break the commandment which saitli ' Thou shalt not covet.'" 
It was an incomparably hjvely little spot. He showed me enormous 
strawberries, such as I had never seen before. Many if not all of 
these Mormons were ])oor in their native land. They are rich here, 
or comfortably well off beyond any day dream they could reasonably 
have dreamed in their early, ante-Mormon days. 

We drove past the cemetery, and on to Camp Douglas, past the 
residence of the commandant, past semicircular rows of ten double 
houses, making twenty residences of officers, with lawn in front. The 
soldiers' ((uarters were solid and comfortable, the finest camp I have 
seen for comfort and for commanding view ; finer than B\)rt Snelling, 
I think. It has the mountains for a background, and looks over the 
city, the lake and the whole valley. Uncle Sam seems to have cared 
for these troops, and especially for their officers. Beyond this camp, 
and easily in sight, lies the canon by which the Mormons entered 
Utah. We did not wait to hear the band which plays at 8: 30 p. M., 
but drove back to the city, meeting on our way carriages going fast 
to the camp to be in time for the Sunday band concert. The moon 
was obscured behind clouds, the curtains of night were drawn down 
very fast, the mountains became dim away in the distance, and the 
valley disappeared. A view from these heights, of the valley bathed 
in moonlight, which we had promised ourselves, was denied us. 

On July 24th, 1847, the pioneer Mormons, 143 in number, entered 
Salt Lake valley. The population now exceeds 150,000, of whom 
over 135,000 are Mormons. Over 5300,000 acres of land are in culti- 
vation, and $300,000 per annum are expended in irrigation. Salt 
Lake City has a population of about 30,000, and covers nine square 
miles. It is 4,2(51 feet above sea level. 

Monday, August 4th. I had interviews with Bishop John Sharp, 
Piesident George Q. Cannon and President John Taylor. Bishop 
John Sliarj) is Vice-President and General Superintendent of the Utah 
Central Pailway, and a Director of the Union Pacific Railway. I 
found him at the general offices of the Utah Central Railway. The 
busy and intelligent officials of these offices are all Mormons. The 
Bishop is a " canny Scot,'' with plenty of shrewdness, ability and 
1)usiness capacity; affable, accessible and pleasant to meet, as all 
these church dignitaries appear to be. He told a good story with 
quiet and striking effect. From Bishop Sharp we went to the F.ion 
House, to see Piesident John Taylor. 

While waiting till President Taylor was disengaged, — if he can 
■ever be said to be disengaged ; as, from what we saw, the outer 



48 NOTES OF A TRIP 

office and his reception-room seem to be pretty full of visitors all the 
time, — President George Q. Cannon came out, and engaged us in 
conversation. He talked pleasingly, and, in a quiet, gentlemanly, 
unobtrusive vpay, almost without appearing to do it, imparted a fund 
of information about interesting points in Mormon history. 

As the advance body of Mormons came through the cailon into 
Utah, Brigham Young, suffering from mountain i'ever, lay on a bed 
which had been improvised for him in a carriage. He directed the 
driver to turn the carriage across the road to enable him to see the 
valley, which lie at once announced to be their destination. He 
located the city at once, and, the moment lie could rise from his bed, 
planned the whole city, and determined the site of Tabernacle, Tem- 
ple, Endowment House, Tithing House, etc. The Tabernacle was 
built on his plan, and the Temple is being built on his plan. When 
what he did, and the success of his doings, and the rapidity with 
which he thought and planned and executed his plans are considered, 
it is easy to see how his followers could believe in his being inspired. 
He appears a leader abler than Moses, and having greater difficulties 
with which to contend. Moses got away from Pharoah and the 
Egyptians, superstitious and easily befogged, and not very wide- 
awake ; but Brigham Young got away from and "got away with " 
this great Yankee people, " the smartest nation in all creation." He 
plunged into what was then practically the unexplored desert, and 
dared the dangers of desert, mountains and hostile Indians, — a hos- 
tile nation behind hiin, hostile savages and unknown dangers and 
privations before and on all sides of him, his destination undetermined, 
in an unknown, unexplored land. The story was told of Fremont on 
his trip across the continent which gave him the title of Pathfinder, 
mistaking Salt Lake and Utah Lake for one sheet of water, and 
reporting the lake as being salty at one end, and fresh at the other. 

Speaking of the freedom permitted in church to children, Presi- 
dent George Q. Cannon said : " We like children, we are very easy 
with them. Brigham Young did not believe, with Solomon, in birch- 
ing children, and his example and influence led to great freedom 
being permitted to them." 

President George Q. Cannon and President Joseph F. Smith, the 
latter a nephew of the propher Joseph Smith, are respectively first 
and second councilors of " John Taylor, President of the Church 
of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in All the World." President 
George Q. Cannon was formerly delegate from Utah in the United 
States Congress, and would have been delegate still if Mormon votes 



FROM CIIICAao TO VfCTORTA. 49 

had counted ; but the Mormons have been disfranchised in this 
country, as Mr. Bradlaugh's constituents have been disfranchised in 
England. President Cannon gets nearly all the votes; but he is not 
allowed to take his seat, because he is a polygamist. 

President John Taylor received us very kindly. Three seats 
stand on a small dais, the centre seat a little higher and a trifle better 
than the other two. The centre seat is for the President, and the 
other two for his two councilors. I saw a room full of people 
evidently waiting to see the President, and I hesitated to occupy his 
time ; but he did not seem disposed to send us away with a merely 
formal introduction, and, at his request, I speedily found myself 
seated alongside of him on the dais. " We are cosmopolitan," he 
said, " and see many who come, ami are glad to see them." I do not 
report all he said, as I might do him injustice by not giving his exact 
language, and his charming confidence and kindness deserve fair 
play. He is of English birth and descent, and came to this country 
when very young. There appears to have been some prophecy, or 
something akin to it, that the cluu'ch would pass under the leadership 
of the English, which prediction is supposed to have fulfillment in 
him. He is affable, accessible, imposing in appearance, with a quiet 
dignity, gentlemanly, courteous, puts his case briefly and well and 
strictly to the point, says much in little, and is physically aTid men- 
tally equipped for his office. 

He stated the position of his church and its relations to the 
country, and what he regarded as persecutions and injustice, calmly 
and gently, without a hint of hate or passion, as if he were outside 
of it all and quite disinterested. There was no touch of resentment 
in tone, manner or look. He is of the highest order of teachers of a 
new faith. In perfect gentleness of speech and manner he resembles 
what the sacred books of the East tell us of the speech and manner 
of Buddha, "the blessed one." There are amiability and benevolence 
in his countenance, he gives and invites confidence, and 1 felt that I 
could say anything to him without fear of misconstruction. No 
portraits of him or of President Cannon, in books or magazines or 
illustrated papers, do either of them justice. Those of President 
Taylor make the face too hard, and denude it of all that is gentle 
and calm and handsome in it. Those of President Cannon give a 
twist of cuiHiiiig to his features, which I could not find in his 
face. 

I do not think that justice has been done by outsiders to the 
secular aspects of Mormonism. Due account has not been taken of 
4 



50 



NOTES OF A TRIP 




FROM CHICAGO TO VICTORIA. 61 

the social advancement which has come to the poor of all lands, who 
have come to Salt Lake to the church, and due credit for this has not 
been given to the church, A wall runs along in front of the Lion 
House, which was built for protection from thieves and Indians in 
the early days of the settlement. But for this wall intervening, the 
door of the President's room would open directly on the street. All 
the arrangements are of the utmost sim])licity, and so as to make 
access easy. There are no barriers, nor anything nor anybody in the 
way of easy entrance and convenient exit. 

The President's secretary kindly became our guide to Temple 
and Tabernacle for a closer inspection of these buildings. In the 
Tabernacle we stood at one end ; at the other end, in front of the 
organ, a gentleman dropped an ordinary-sized, common, small pin, 
and we heard it drop. He brushed his hand over the covering of 
the crimson-covered seats, and we heard that also, A whisper at one 
end can be heard at the other, and one or two of our party tested 
that likewise. These facts attest the perfect acoustic properties of 
the Tabernacle. We were taken to the office of the Deseret JEvening 
N'eios, the official organ of the church. We missed an interview with 
the editor, who was not in ; but we met the assistant editor, a man 
of impressive physique, and said to be a capable speaker and 
writer. 

At 4:30 p. M. we leave Salt Lake City by the Utah Central 
Railway for Ogden, thirty-seven miles distant. Twenty miles away 
from the city we come alongside Salt Lake, forty by ninety miles in 
extent, and at an altitude of 4,218 feet. We run alongside of it for 
miles, having its flat, marshy-looking shores on one side, and the 
mountains on the other. Mormon settlements, flourishing and fair 
to' see, abound, amid trees and fresh, pleasant surroundings. 

Except from the mouth of a master of speech, or the pen of 
genius, how impotent are words to define these Western scenes. 
Such altitudes, such depths, an atmosphere so clear, so rarefied, 
such radiance of sunlight, night coming on in gorgeous sunsets, 
tinting the horizon with ever-varying masses of untranscribable 
colors. Then, when night has come, the moon floods the heavens 
with a loveliness, and the stars light it with a splendor, unobserved 
by me elsewhere. To these succeed the splendid surprise of morn- 
ing, when the sun rises in his strength, and rides like a conqueror 
over summits white with age and snow. 

We leave Ogden at 5:15 i'. m., and early Wednesday morning 
are in San Francisco, 842 miles from Ogden. Mondav nio-ht. 



52 



NOTES OF A TRIP 




FROM CHICAGO TO VICTORIA. 53 

Tuesday and Tuesday iiiiilit are occupied by this portion of our trip. 
Even alter leaving Ogden, and wliile speedino^ on the journey over 
the Central Pacific Railway, we still have Salt Lake in sight for some 
distance. We pass a night camp of Chinese track-men, the offense 
of which to our nostrils was rank. We are on high table land, with 
mountains around us, many witli much snow on them. Tuesday we 
are passing over the alkali plains. Wild sage is their chief product. 
The alkali dust, penetrating everywhere, and powdering us all over, 
is an unmitigated nuisance. Jack rabbits occasionally appear ; 
Indians are seen riding on the platforms of express and baggage cars, 
and papooses strapped to their mothers' backs. Here and there this 
alkali plain and sage bush desert presents the charming surprise of 
little dots of luxuriant tropical vegetation, where at dining or other 
stations, it has been transformed by irrigation and cultivation. Then, 
there are fountains and flowers and the dense shade of trees, a 
delightful oasis in an otherwise barren land. 

Tuesday night we pass the Sierras, and see them not. We also 
pass through thirty miles of snov^^sheds, which we do not regret 
passing at night. In the early hours of the morning we are in 
Sacramento City, and see somewhat of the attractive Sacramento 
valley. Soon we are running by the inland waters of the Pacific, 
an<l now are at Oakland, cross by ferry to San Francisco, and 
take up our temporary abode at the Palace Hotel. On this trip I 
frequently heard the word "globe-trotters" applied to travelers who 
go long distances, or round the world. The inland waters of the 
Pacific, extending back from San Francisco, are extensive enough to 
entitle them to the distinction of being regarded as a separate ocean. 
The Palace Hotel is seven stories high, with accommodations for 
a formidable army. Carriages drive under cover right into the 
centre of the building in front of the hotel office. From the galleries 
of each story of this large quadrangle you can look down on 
the bustle and rush of numerous arrivals and departures. Elevators 
convey you from floor to floor, without your having to undergo the 
labor of climbing stairs. 

It was night before we could find time to visit the Chinese 
quarter. There are 40,000 Chinese in San Francisco, most of whom 
are jjacked in one quarter. The sidewalks were crowded, and the 
interiors were literally packed. This quarter of the city is entirely 
given up to "the heathen," and we might just as well be in the 
Celestial Empire as here. 

In this (|uarter we saw a building which was once the leading 



54 NOTES OF A TRIP 

hotel in San Francisco. It is so no more. No hotel depending- 
upon the patronage of the general public can exist in the Chinese 
quarter. The general public would not locate there even tempo- 
rarily. Nothing that esteems itself white and good will dwell in this 
Nazareth. Chinese merchants can pack more merchandise and crowd 
more assistants in a giv^en space than any white man can do. We 
explored one store, and were courteously received. Every available 
niche was filled up with merchandise, or had "a pagan " jammed in 
it, busy as a bee over books or correspondence. We visited a jos& 
house, and were just becoming interested in the explanations and the 
marvels of engraving and carving which adorned it, when one of our 
party was overcome with the odor of the incense, and we beat an 
unceremonious retreat. 

Our next visit was to a tea-garden. The charge for a cup of tea 
in a first-class tea-garden is just a trifle exorbitant ; but then, we 
were notified, the moment we ordered tea, what the charge would be. 
This is a refinement of fair play unusual outside of paganism. We 
quickly discovered that we had never tasted tea before. It is a 
celestial drink as made by " the heathen Chinee," and a much finer 
article of tea than is furnished to barbarians through the usual 
channels of trade. The Mongolian makes it in a way of his own, and 
the art of making tea still continues to be a monopoly of his. 

We did not see the worst of this Chinese quarter. That, I am 
told, is indescribable. Opium dens abound, and smells are too 
pronounced for the most callous nostrils. If plague should come,, 
the presence of this unsavory, closely packed crowd, would be a 
menace to public health. I was afterward taken through streets of 
low resort which my guide informed me were more dangerous than 
any in the Chinese quarter. These were occupied by French outcasts. 

" Frisco," as the people of the far West delight to call the great 
city of the Pacific coast, is a city set upon several hills and in nu- 
merous valleys. It is well provided with large and elegant hotels, 
and beautiful and roomy street cars run everywhere. The street 
car lines are run by underground cable, the most practicable method 
where such heights have to be ascended. I have not seen as good 
street cars in any other city. Flowers grow like weeds in this 
" glorious climate." 

Friday, August 8th. We left Frisco at 3:30 p. m., for Monterey, 
135 miles distant. We pass Belmont and Menlo Park, the lovely 
Santa Clara valley, and its metropolis, San .lose, and fields in which 
the industrious "Chinee" is gathering up all the fat of the land. 



FROM CHICAGO TO VICTORIA. 



56 




56 NOTES OF A TRTP 

At 7:25 r. m., we alight at a pretty little station in a land of flowers. 
The Hotel Del Monte is close at ham], " in a grove of 126 acres of 
oak, pine, spruce and cypress trees, and within a quarter of a mile 
of the beach." In the large hall of this great hotel, in a fireplace 
of generous dimensions, a log fire was blazing. The daintiest rooms 
daintily furnished look out on flower gardens which realize dreams of 
fairy land. Seven thousand acres of land are held in connection with 
this hotel, through which are twenty-five miles of carriage drives. 
We were told that we ought to see this and all California in winter, 
when flowers and everything else are finer than in summer. It is a 
paradise of flowers which bloom all the year round. 

Saturday, August 9th, we took a drive of many miles, through 
the lovely grounds of the Hotel del Monte, and outside of them to 
the seashore, past a large bathing house, and through Monterey and 
Pacific Grove, a village of tents and seaside residences, a famous 
bathing resort " open all the year round," to Cypress Point, Surel}^ 
and not very slowly goes on the progress of reclaiming the sandy 
wastes on the seaside of Hotel del Monte, and turning their barren- 
ness into trees and flowers. 

At Monterey we see the hotel at which Fremont took up his 
quarters after his trip across the continent, in 184(3, which won for 
him the title of " the Pathfinder," and was the first step in fame 
which led to his being afterward nominated as the Republican can- 
didate for president. With thought of Fremont comes his wife, the fa- 
mous daughter of a famous father. Senator Benton, whose statue stands 
in La Fayette Park, St. Louis, who was one of the earliest, if not the 
earliest, advocates of a railroad across the continent to the Pacific. 
It was he who, in reference to this track across the continent, and 
pointing westward, said, " There is the East : there is India." 

There is — 

WHALING AT MONTEREY. 
Monterey Argun, August 2. 

The whalers shot a large female whale during the week ; but she sunk in 
about forty-five fathoms, and they will have to wait for her to come to the sur- 
face, which will take about three days. She is accompanied by her calf, which 
they expect to capture. Soon after shooting this one, they espied the male, 
and, giving chase, soon sent a bomb into his body. They were more successful 
in this instance; for the monster made for the bay, and towed the boats a con- 
siderable distance toward the place before he died. This one was more con- 
siderate than his mate; for he floated when life was extinct. He is a monster, 
measuring over eighty feet in length, and is known to the whalers as the 
"sulphur bottom." A large number of people from Monterey and Pacific 



FROM CniCAOO TO VICTORIA. 57 

Grove visited tlie whaierj- Thursday, aud sat on the beach watching the men 
remove the blubber. They expect to get seventj' or eighty barrels from him. 
This is one of the largest whales ever caught in this section. 

In Monterey we saw also the old Custom House, with its ancient 
flag-staff, on which the flag of the United States was first floated in 
California when the latter was ceded to the Union. We saw, too, 
the old fort and barracks, and the now somewhat wrecked looking 
building in which the collective wisdom of California once sat, for 
Monterey was once the capital of this State. 

In 1849, when Bayard Taylor was here, it looked to him at first 
as "a deserted town." It has not quite lost tliat look yet. Then 
buildings " rented for :i5l,200 monthly," and rooms for $200 monthly, 
and " a lot 75 feet by 25 feet, with a small frame store upon it, was 
sold for 85,000. A one-story house, with a lot about 50 by 75 feet, 
in the outskirts of the town, was held at |G,000. This was about 
the average rate of property." Monterey has not fulfilled the hopes 
of its early days, when it was assumed to have advantages which San 
Francisco had not, and was expected, in some respects, to become a 
rival of San Francisco. It was to be one of the great cities, if not 
the great city, of the Pacific coast. It is now a fishing village and 
a pleasure resort, only that, and nothing more ; but it has the 
loveliest site in the world, and its climatic advantages are beyond 
question. 

By the roadside, close to a point at which we crossed a small 
stream, there was a wooden cross inscribed "July 3, 1770." We are 
told that it marks the spot where the first service of the church was 
performed by the first Jesuit missionary. At Cypress Point, we take 
in a long sweep of Pacific shore. We look from the rocky height on 
the waters of the Pacific dashing about the rocks, and sprinkling 
Pelican Rock with its spray. Flocks of pelicans cover the rocks, and 
sail above the waters from rock to rock. Sea-lions popped up their 
heads, and made their presence known audibly. One looked intjuir- 
ingly, and I think had it in his mind to ask us of his relatives which 
we had left behind us in Lincoln Park, Chicago, not far from our 
doorstep. It is from this coast the sea-lions are recruited for this 
Chicago park. 

Our drive lay through pine forests and cypress groves of intense, 
pleasing and healthful odors. The high winds have flattened these 
cypresses, and bent and twisted and battered branches and leaves 
into one compact mass of fantastic forms. The shade is thick 
and perfect. California lilac and wild flowers met the eye every- 



58 



NOTES OF A TRIP 




FROM CHICAGO TO VICTORIA. 59 

where. Spanish moss lightly veiled trees. We had pointed out 
to us a creeping plant known as " Poison Oak," and were told 
fearful tales thereof. To some persons, to touch it is to absorb 
its poison. Very sensitive persons absorb the poison by merely 
passing near the plant. Our driver was skeptical as to this. He 
held that the wind must blow something of it against any passer-by 
in any case in which the latter cauglit the poisonous infection. " The 
fastest train on the Pacific coast" took us into San Francisco in time 
for a late dinner. 

Sunday, August 10th. We went to the Clitf House, to look from 
its veranda on the rocky shores of the Pacific far below, and to see 
one of the great sights of San Francisco, — the crowds of sea-lions 
disporting in the water, and barking at nothing in particular. The 
waters were alive with them, and the rocks which were not preempted 
by sea-gulls were covered with them. They look their prettiest in 
the water, and their movements are swift and not ungraceful. They 
climb upon the rocks in the clumsiest way, and waddle down them 
and roll oif them clumsily and ludicrously. When they lie on the 
rocks, as they do until they dry, they look to the eye as so many 
brown skins lying drying in a rather eccentric tannery.* 

We diverged to a fine, large park, with drives and romantic 
pathways, and an endless array of flowers and bedding plants, and 
shrubbery and trees, and wild woods and greensward of the greenest, 
kept so by unwearied sprinkling. Frisco empties out its thousands 
on Sundays to Oakland, Alameda, Cliff" House, etc. We crossed the 
bay by ferry to Oakland to visit friends. We went a few miles by 
rail, and then had a carriage drive of many miles through all that 
pleasant suburb and the fair land that lies all around it. Outside of 
Oakland's beautiful streets and splendid residences inclosed in lovely 
grounds, we were impressed with the fruit farms and the wealth and 
profusion of flowers. Eucalyptus trees of Australia, beautiful and 

* The following is from a San Francisco dispatch of August 15th, iu the 
Chicago Tiibune of August IGth, 1885 : "The question of the destruction of 
food lish in the harbor by SL-a-lioiis has been discussed very often in connection 
with the diminution of the supply. An effort is now being made to secure all 
the evidence obtainable on this point. Fish Commissioner Redding has 
appointed a commission to take the testimony of experts. Should the report 
sustain the position of the fishermen, it is probable that the law forbidding the 
killing of sea-lions will be repealed. If this is done the Seal Rocks of the 
Cliff House, near the Golden Gate, one of the most famous resorts on the 
Pacific coast, where hundreds of seals and sea-lions daily bask in the sun, will 
soon be deprived of tlie only attractions for tourists." 



60 NOTES OF A TRIP 

tall and straight, abound. They are said to preclude malaria, and 
are cultivated as a protection to health. But nothing is safe from 
slander and detraction, not even this delight of the eye and defense 
against malaria, and I read in a newspaper : — 

THE FALL OF AN IDOL. 

The eucalyptus tree has hitherto been in favor for its anti-malarial prop- 
erties, which are especially familiar in Australia, where it is one of the loftiest 
of timber trees. It has, however, lately lost favor in the province of San Pedro, 
Brazil, from the belief that it stimulates the generation of a poisonous dragon 
fly, which attacks ail living creatures, to which its sting is fatal in a few 
minutes. The destruction of all eucalyptus trees has therefore been ordered 
in San Pedro. 

San Pedro may have a demoralizing atmosphere, and evil com- 
munications may have there corrupted the good manners of the 
eucalyptus tree ; but, in the virtuous soil and " glorious climate of 
California," it retains its pristine qualities and the good opinion of 
the citizens, adorns the landscape, and remains a thing of beauty. 
Redwood is largely used in California for building. Of this species of 
" Mammoth California Trees," the Santa Clara, Cal., Republican says : 

A redwood tree cut in this county furnished all the timber for the 
Ba]5tist Church in Santa Rosa, one of the largest church edifices in the county. 
The Interior of the building is finished in wood, tliere being no plastered walls. 
Sixty thousand shingles were made from the tree after enough was taken for 
the church. Another redwood tree, cut near Murphy's mill, in this county, 
about ten years ago, furnished shingles that required the constant labor of two 
indusliious men for two years before the tree was used up. 

It was incessantly dinned in our ears, that, to see California 
aright, we ought to see it in winter. Then there would be no fogs, 
the mountains would be green, and everything fresher and fairer. 
Even the flowers would be lovelier, and there would be other and 
finer varieties of them. At Monterey it was said. Come in winter if 
you wish to see Monterey when it is loveliest, and the whole land at 
its best. What a land, with an equable atmosphere and flowers all 
the year round. 

As we first approached Frisco by rail, running alongside the 
inland waters of the Pacific Ocean, we had noticed grain in sacks 
])iled in the open air, without any protection. At the extreme ends of 
long wharves running far out into the water, it was similarly piled. At 
that time of the year, there was no danger from rain, and none from 
winds coming to ruffle the vasty deep. It was a novelty to be in a 
land of such absolute certainty as to visitations of wind and rain. 



FROM CHICAGO TO VICTORIA. 61 

Monday, August lltli. At K) a.m., we take passa<ie on the 
Queen of tlie Pacific, one of a line of steamers running between 
Frisco and Tacoma, at the head of Puget's Sound, via Victoria, 
Vancouver's Island, British Columbia. Our objective point was 
Portland, Oreojon, and our original plan was to go direct by steamer 
running via Columbia river ; but we were told that it was rough 
crossing the bar at the mouth of the Columbia, and that the route via 
Victoria would take but a day longer, that the steamers were finer, 
that we would have more of the Pacific Ocean, and sights of greater 
interest, and we were persuaded. 

We were told of the fine view of Frisco which we would have while 
sailing over the bay, and out of the Golden Gate into the great ocean 
beyond; but one of Frisco's solid fogs came down, and covered all 
the land, and bay, and sea, and our view was, consequently, an 
extremely limited one. We see the defenses being erected at the 
narrow passage known as the Golden Gate. The shores are soon hid 
by fog, and remain hid until 10 a. m., next day, Tuesday, August 
12th. The fog blocks our view, and restricts it to a few feet of 
water. At last it clears rapidly, like a veil lifted, and miles of sea 
sparkling in sunlight are revealed. The sun on the water is most 
dazzling. The shore comes out into sight. At starting, it was rocky; 
now it seems to be sand-hills, with higher hills behind. Birds of 
strong wing, pelicans and sea-gulls are following us. Numerous 
whales come in sight; but we miss them. 

The first night we were advised to lie with our state-room door 
open. At half past 10, electric lights in state-rooms are extinguished. 
The watchman goes his steady rounds all night. Our state-room 
faces out to sea, and it is but one step from it to the side of the 
steamer. We lie with the Pacific Ocean at our sleeping-room door, 
and look out on it and its fogs, and listen to its dashings, which have 
a never-failing charm for me. Of the sound of ocean, like love lor 
the beloved, you can not define the charm ; but all the more exqui- 
sitely you feel it. The Pacific Ocean is not always as pacific as its 
name might imply. We listened to terrible stories about its wrath 
from old voyagers who had made trips to and from China; and our 
experience was not all serene. Monday we had wind and fog; Tues- 
day morning, fog again, till suddenly it lifted, and the sun shone over 
miles of sparkling water. Then the ocean became as smooth as a 
village pond. Tuesday night we had wind and rain. Wednesday 
morning it was scjually, but there was no sea to talk about. 

Not many sail were seen. Monday and Tuesday we saw none; 



62 NOTES OF A TRIP 

"Wednesday we saw a steamer and two sailing vessels. We kept on 
the lookout for whales, and on Wednesday, about 6 P. M., were 
rewarded by seeing them in any number, spouting and plunging in 
all directions, on all sides of us, near and far. Where sea and sky 
met, we saw a column of water spouting up to the heavens above, 
and immediately the huge figure of a whale was outlined on the 
horizon. 

Much attention was paid to the comfort of passengers, more than 

I had ever experienced before. The captain came round daily about 

II A. M. to inspect and inquire if all was right, watchmen inspected 
every night after the electric light was extinguished, and waiter and 
stewardess were round between G and 7 a. jr., with tea or coffee and 
toast, and to find out if we were going to breakfast. They came 
round after every meal to find out if we had been at it, and if we 
wished for anj'thing. 

Early Thursday morning, August 14th, we are in Victoria harbor, 
having accomplished our short sea voyage of about seven hundred 
and fifty miles. A. had telegraphed us before we left Frisco that 
he would come on from Portland, and meet us here. I was speedily 
on the dock, notwithstanding a mocking intimation that I need not 
expect him at that hour, and I surely could not expect that he would 
sit up all night waiting our arrival. Teamsters and cabbies in 
crowds assailed me ; but I heeded not their cry, and kept steadily 
threading my way past them. Soon an open carriage came dashing 
swiftly down the steep road to the dock. It clearly had a mission, 
and 1 was sure that it was to me. I discerned a familiar figure, and 
soon a well-known voice said, " I am glad you have come." 

Our steamer was to lie there until noon, and then go on its way 
to Tacoma; but A. decided that I had business to which to attend, 
people and sights to see, and must remain all day in Victoria, and go 
to bed at night in the steamer Olympian, of the Oregon Railway & 
Steam Navigation Company, which would leave early next morning 
for Tacoma, thus enabling me to make the whole trip from Victoria 
in daylight. 

Vancouver's Island seemed to me the same as California, except 
in bustle and rush. Victoria seemed a city in Lotos Land. Nobody 
who was anybody got up early in the morning, and nobody was in a 
hurry. Even the newspapers appeared to be published for the name 
of the thing, and not for any news which they contained. They were 
as absolutely devoid of news, foreign or domestic, as perhaps it is 
permitted to a newspaper to be. There was nothing sensational 



FROM CHICAGO TO VICTORIA. 68 

about them except their price, which was ten cents a paper. That 
Victoria can digest its daily press and survive the operation speaks 
volumes for the healthiness of its climate. The deadness and dull- 
ness of the papers transcend description and baffle conception. 

Vancouver is mountainous and beautiful, with rocky and wooded 
shores. We took a lono; inland, woodland, rural drive. Our drive 
included the Navy Yard, in which were English vessels of war, and 
took us past gardens and farms, with flowers and fruit, which seemed 
California over again. The Chinese excel in field culture here, as 
they do everywhere. We drove through the grounds, and past the 
residence of the Lieutenant Governor. In the grounds a convict 
gang were working on the carriage drive. Splendor and squalor, 
rank and crime, come into close contrast in all lands. We stopped 
at the Driard House, an unrivaled hotel. I do not think that it has 
its superior in table anywhere. 

Victoria is the capital of British Columbia, which is one of the 
provinces of the Dominion of Canada. Like the province of Ontario, it 
has only one House of Parliament, and seems, like Ontario, to get 
along with one house just as well, and a great deal cheaper, if not a 
great deal better, than provinces and states that can not exist without 
a House of Representatives and a Senate. Why the people should 
elect a House of Commons and a Senate to check, and hold in 
rein, and delay, and embarrass, the House of Commons, is one of 
those mysteries which can only be solved iiy referring it to the wis- 
dom of our ancestors. 

The government buildings, six in number, are built of brick, are 
ornamental, pretty, and rather toyish in appearance. In the House 
of Representatives, which was not in session, there were twenty-five 
seats, one seat in excess of the number of members. On the edge of 
the government grounds, close to the highway, stands a granite shaft 
on a granite base, with this inscription : — 

Erected \\\ tue People of 

British Coixmbia 

TO the memory "of 

Sir James Douglas, K. C. B., 

Governor 

AND 

Commander in Chief 
from 

1851 to 18G4. 



64 NOTES OF A TRIP 

What is fame? Outside of British Columbia, who has heard of 
this famous man in whose honor this stately column lifts its lofty 
head? 

Victoria has a fine location, has 8,000 inhabitants, and, when Par- 
liament is in session, must l)e a trifle livelier than when I walked its 
streets. On one street corner there was a sign with a famous name : — 

General Berlin 

Assortment of MRS. SHAKESPEARE. and Zephyr 

Fancy Goods. Wools. 

The next day I saw, in New Tacoma, a reminder of Dickens in 
the name of the " Weller House;" and later, in Portland, 1 had a 
reminder of Thackeray in the " Esmond House," at which I put up. 
I am sorry to say, that since then, this, the finest hotel in Portland, 
has been totally destroyed by tire. 

The Canadian government had a commissioner in Victoria hearing 
evidence on the Chinese question. There are 18,000 Chinese in British 
Columbia, and 3,000 of these in Victoria. The commissioner elicited 
the fact that the low Chinese are very dirty and very bad, just as 
dirty and bad as low white people. The real crime of " the heathen " 
is not his vice and his dirt, in which he does not excel white outcasts, 
but that he works for less money, and can live upon less, than a 
white man. The real question to be determined is: Shall he, by his 
cheap labor, drive the white laborer to the wall? That is not the 
way the politicians state it, and that is not the cry raised ijy those 
who yell the loudest that the Chinese must go; but it is the exact 
position. 

It is not a question of vice, or disease, or opium habits. It is a 
question of whether the cheap Mongolian shall replace the dear Cau- 
casian. It is a question of race, and survival of the fittest and best, 
and must be met and dealt with in that way some day. This Chi- 
nese question is a burning one on the Pacific coast; but hitherto there 
seems to have been some hesitancy in dealing with it plainly and 
bluntly. Everywhere that the Chinaman is met, he confirms what 
Bayard Taylor wrote of him over thirty years ago, " He has the one 
virtue of industry, and his cheap habits of life enable him to get a 
profit out of bars deserted by the white miners, and soil scorned by 
the white farmers." 

People engaged in the ordinary avocations of life go everywhere 
nowadays. Traveling is no longer the exclusive privilege of the 
rich or adventurous, or those having ample leisure. It is undertaken 



FROM CHICAGO TO VICTORIA. 65 

for pleasure, for information, for business ; by the busy, the over- 
worked, the most inadventurous. An excursion to Alaska had 
passed a few days before my advent in Victoria. It left Portland, 
Oregon, about the first of August ; and it was calculated that 
the trip from Portland to Alaska and return, giving sufficient time for 
sight-seeing, would take but twenty-one days. The fare was only $95. 
About one hundred people took advantage of this excursion, seventy- 
five of whom were school teachers spending their vacation. Tliey 
had been in attendance at the National Convention of Teachers held 
in Madison, Wisconsin. After the convention adjourned, the 
teachers scattered in all directions on pleasure trips before returning 
to their homes. 

I had looked upon Alaska as being almost inaccessible, and 
waked up to find it an ordinary pleasure resort, to which you 
can buy cheap round-trip tickets, just as you can buy them to 
any other pleasure resort. This is one result of the building of the 
Northern Pacific Railroad, and its being officered and operated by 
wide-awake citizens, who omit no chance to open new avenues 
of travel and develop new sources of traffic. Excursions to the 
Yellowstone National Park and to Alaska are of their invention. 

Some of these teachers, iVlaska excursionists, on their return trip 
overtook me at the Dalles, Oregon, and I found out from them that 
our received ideas about Alaska stand in need of considerable 
revision. They were so charmed with their trip that they laid plans 
at once for another one in 1885. 

Just before I left home I had a letter from .Jerusalem, insisting 
that I must go there ; and I was told by another friend to consider 
myself under contract to visit the Yellowstone region within a 
reasonable period. On my way west, I received a telegram 
reminding me that I had agreed whenever called upon to make a 
trip to Mexico. If that Alaska excursion had not gone, I should 
have been strongly tempted to join it. When we first set out from 
Chicago, we had about determined not to go west of Colorado, — at 
any rate not to go beyond Salt Lake ; but, by taking advice 
and yielding to persuasion, we found ourselves at last in Victoria, 
the farthest point at which we touched. 

Friday, August 15th. Last night we occupied state-rooms 
on the steamer " Olympian," and, before going to bed, I had a moon- 
light view of the bay in which our steamer lay. I was up between 
4 and 5 ; but, before I could get washed and dressed, the steamer 
got under way, and so rapidly that we were out of the harbor before 
6 



66 NOTES OF A TRIP 

I could get on deck. In about two hours we had steamed across the 
straits, which were cahn and smooth as a pond, the beautifully 
wooded shores of Vancouver were receding from view, and we were 
in Puget's Sound, " the Mediterranean of the Northwest." The 
snowy head of lofty Mount Baker was just visible through a rift in 
fleecy clouds. 

Our first stop was at Port Townsend, Washington Territory, a 
fine location, with business houses and hotels on the shore close to 
the water, and residences on the highlands, which rise steep and 
abrupt from the narrow strip of land at their feet between them and 
this inland sea. From the mouth to the head of the sound at 
Tacoma, W. T., is about one hundred and fifty miles. There was 
everj'where ample breadth, which sometimes counted by miles. It 
was novel to me to find myself on this great inland salt-water sea, 
hemmed in by lofty and beautifully wooded mountains and highlands; 
and I remained on deck all day except during dinner, enjoying the 
varied scenes which presented themselves in one long and enchanting 
panorama. The reflected rays of the sun had given my face the 
dark red tint of the Indian before I reached Tacoma. Dinner was 
considerately served in a saloon, the windows of which commanded 
both sides of our course, and the way by which we had come, so 
that no sight-seeing was lost to us. Of constant recurrence were 
immense outlets on each side of us, stretching away we knew not 
how far, and as broad or broader than that in which we were plow- 
ing our way. 

Of picturesque places on the sound, where all were picturesque, 
Seattle, W. T., was the most prominent; rising from the water, ex- 
tending right back on the hills, showing to the utmost advantage its 
charming residences, and fine business blocks, and public buildings, 
and, most to its credit, largest and most striking, its public schools 
and university buildings, splendid and imposing. Nothing in the 
place was quite as good as these halls of learning, and it is needless 
to say that Seattle commanded at once unhesitating respect. 

We had two or three hours of daylight left when we reached New 
Tacoma, W. T., at the head of navigation and the sound. We took 
rooms at " The Tacoma," an imposing palatial structure, splendidly 
furnished, and in grounds tastefully laid out. It stands, as nearly 
all New Tacoma stands, high above the sound; and the best views of 
the city and surrounding country can be obtained from it. Beyond 
all comparison, it is the largest and best building in the place, and 
is one of the most comfortable hotels in the country. It was built 



FROM CHICAOO TO VICTORIA. 67 

and is maintained to popularize New Tacoma, and was not expected 
to pay; but it does pay. New Tacoma is perhaps the foremost city 
on the sound. Old Tacoma is over the hills, in another bay. But the 
two places are gradually nearing each other, and have been incor- 
porated as one city. 

As we drove over to Old Tacoma, Saturday, August 16th, we 
found workmen cutting away and burning the forest, and improving 
the communications by road, leveling and straightening it out. The 
road stood in need of widening. There was no room to pass, except 
at special points ; and we had to stop till a team got out of our way, 
and sometimes we had to keep others waiting in the same way for us. 
These passing points were utilized by teamsters for purposes of 
gossip, and we were kept waiting at one point till two who were 
ahead of us had exchanged news with each other and departed 
on their separate Avays. There is a large waste of timber going 
on in this country, where much is burnt merely to get it out of 
the way. 

The most noticeable thing in Old Tacoma was the bell tower of 
the Episcopal Church. It is simply a tree with the top sawn off even, 
and the bell fixed thereon. The Episcopal Church is a shanty adorned 
with a cross. The aesthetic fever has reached New Tacoma, and we 
saw several "dude" houses, pleasantly diversifying the ordinary 
sameness of city architecture. Mr. C. B. Wright, of Philadelphia, 
has given §50,000 as an endowment fund to the Annie Wright 
Seminary for Young Ladies, a large three-story building which he 
has erected in New Tacoma. Next to " The Tacoma," this seminary 
is the best building in the place. It is named after a daughter of 
Mr. Wright. He has also erected, at his own expense, an Episcopal 
church, which has cost him 1:^5,000 ; and he lias projected an 
educational institution for young men, which he will endow with 
850,000. He is, I believe, interested in " The Tacoma," and other 
citv property, as well as in the railways here, and is fully dis- 
charging, with lavish hand, all the duties Avhich property owes to 
a community. 

New Tacoma is well provided with schools. An election was in 
progress while I was there. In the Third Ward four names of 
ladies headed four gentlemen on the nomination ticket. This was 
probably reversed when election day came. Extensive fires had 
swept away blocks, and much building was going on. Iron foun- 
dries, at an expense of 62,000,000, are to be established, and to give 
employment to ^,000 people. 



68 NOTES OF A TRIP 

The veranda of " The Tacoma" looks down upon the head-Avaters 
of the inland sea-waters, which here lose themselves in shallow 
grass and marsh. I sat for an hour or more looking down upon this 
farthest advance inland of these Pacific floods, and at the opposite 
shore, wooded and hilly ; at the Indian mission and school in the 
distance ; at Mount Tacoma, formerly Mount Rainier, about sixty- 
seven miles away, 14,o00 feet high, forty miles in circumference at 
its base, and with a superficial area of 1,000 miles. Thick clouds 
"wrapped all of it except its head and base, and there was more 
snow upon it than on any mountain which I have seen. In the 
intervening woods, near the city, lies an enchanted land of diives 
and lakelets. 

While I sat, a young bear belonging to the hotel grounds began 
to climb the veranda steps, possibly with the intention of opening 
social relations with me. He was not a bear of determined character, 
but was rather hesitating. He deliberated at every step, debating 
every move. About half way up he took a vote and decided 
to return. At the foot he reconsidered the motion, turned his face 
upward, raised his paws on the first step, took them down again to 
think it over another time, pondered profoundly and heavily, 
scratched his head and clawed out an idea, and turned and departed. 
Afterward he came again a few times, but could never make up his 
mind what course to take : he was a bear of a very undecided turn 
of mind. I did not care for his company anyway. 

Mr. Ackley, formerly of North Shields, now employed on a city 
paper here, called, and introduced himself as a Northumbrian. I had 
a most pleasant interview with him. He knew many known to me in 
Newcastle-upon-Tyne and the North of England. 

New Tacoma has a Chinese quarter with a population of about 
five hundred. 

Saturday, August IGth, at G P. M., we leave Tacoma by train. 
We go 105 miles by rail, and at 11 p. m., at Kalama, we take the 
steamer, and do the remaining thirty-eight miles by river. We are 
in Portland early next morning, Sunday, August 17th. 

Portland has a population of 40,000, of which 10,000 are Chinese; 
it has "go" enough in it for a city of twice its population. Its 
traffic by rail and river is very large. East Portland, on the 
opposite side of the Willamette, is a considerable place. Twelve 
miles onward is the junction of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, 
the latter being the " Oregon " of old writers. Seventy years ago 
Bryant wrote, — 



FROM CHIC AOO TO VICTORIA. 



69 




70 NOTES OF A TRIP 

' ' Take the wings 
Of moruiug, traverse Barca's desert sands, 
Or lose thyself in the continuous woods 
Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound 
Save his own dashings." 

These lines are the perfect expression of complete solitude, and 
they have always invested the Oregon to me with all the hues 
of romance. They clung to my memory, and would not let me 
forget them, nor the mighty stream they celebrated, and there came 
a haunting wish to see it. Since the poet wrote, change has come to 
the Columbia, and fleets sweep over it, and trains rush along its shores, 
which are lined with farms and villages and salmon canneries, and at 
its mouth Astoria stands sentry. 

Monday, August 18th, I devote to business and other visits, and 
drives in Portland, its parks and suburbs. Splendid, substantial, 
solid business blocks and beautiful residences abound. For a city of 
its size it has an amazing number of fine private residences. There 
was one fine street, palatial and pleasing. There live the pioneers, 
all in a row. They '' came here in the forties," said my informant, 
and they sat still and grew rich because they couldn't help it. They 
had the land, and in the heart of this city it became valuable. 

The drive to the City Park was like the ascents on the Denver 
& Rio Grande Railroad; we went up and up, and round and round, 
track above track, until we attained the highest point in the park, 
from whence we looked down upon Portland and wide spaces of 
landscape. Up a glorious ravine, and by roads like the road to the 
park, we drove out to the beautiful residence and grounds of hos- 
pitable Mr. Schultze, the Land Commissioner of the Northern Pacific 
Railroad. Forest fires away in the distance obscured the land, and 
prevented us from seeing all that we had been led to expect to see 
from this eminence. Mount Hood, the lion of the land, was not 
visible. It was the only famous mountain on our whole trip which 
declined to be at home to us. 

In the city we passed what had once been a barren, stony ravine; 
but the industrious Chinaman has transformed it into a fruitful 
garden. At night we went to the Chinese theatre. The streets 
around it swarmed with Chinese; they were like ants on an ant 
hill. The theatre was crammed to suifocation; there was not even 
standing room left. A box had been reserved for us. The boxes 
next to us were filled with Chinese women of the only class, with 
rare exceptions, imported into this country. They were as quiet and 



FROM CHICAGO TO VICTORIA. 71 

undemonstrative as if they liad not been outcasts. The audience 
were all very (juiet, — almost stolid. They enjoyed themselves seri- 
ously ; scarcely a smile illuminated a countenance. There was 
more stir over something unknown to me which occurred in the 
audience than over anything going forward on the stage. There 
was a good deal of smoking, and fruits and candies were trafficked 
round. 

The seats and boxes were of common wood, and a very few strips of 
Chinese patterns, and a few Chinese inscriptions, were the sum total 
of any decorations. The stage was an open platform, at each end 
of which there was a packed audience, through which the actors had 
to force their way out. There were three or four seats, and no more 
stage scenery than would furnish forth a Punch and .Judy show. 
An indescribable orchestra sat at the rear of the stage, eternally 
assisting, and emphasizing points most noisily. Stage clears: orches- 
tra clatters and deafens. Actors enter: orchestra clatters and deaf- 
ens. Actors enter and make their exit at curtained entrances at the 
back of the stage on each side of the orchestra. They came in at the 
right of the orchestra, and made their exit at the left of the orches- 
tra. I was told that an actor having to feign death lies awhile on 
the stage, and then gets up and walks out. 

The only scenery I saw used was something like a pulpit, but not 
as large. Slight changes were made in it, and the actors also made 
slight changes on the platform during the action of the play. Except 
the few chairs, however, not much use was made of scenery, if that 
which was used can be dignified by that name. There were a few 
gorgeous costumes ; masks also were used, and fiends were made 
as uncanny as paper and paint could make them. 

No females perform on the Chinese stage, and horrid males 
painted an inch thick took the female parts. The singing consisted 
of a poor, rasping chant, screeching, screaming and howling, and 
had less of music in it than ordinary speech. There was a circular 
hole at the back of the stage, iiigh above the orchestra, and that 
appeared to be utilized by spectators. Chinese plays last for days 
and weeks. We contented ourselves with a small section of one. 
When we came outside late the streets were still jammed with 
heathen. I do not know how long the theatre remains open, — 
perhaps it never closes, — nor when the heathen sleep, — perhaps they 
keep awake always. They swarm on the streets at all hours. 

Next day, Tuesday, August 19th, after business, I visited art gal- 
leries and studios, and saw marvelous effects in color, and wonderful 



NOTES OF A TRIP 




Palisades of Columbia River, 



FROM CHICAGO TO VICrOlUA. 73 

transcripts of wonderful scenery. Colonel Tom Morry, of the Port- 
land Oregonian, did me the service to explain tliese monster mount- 
ain scenes and river scenes, which he did with clearness and facility, 
having lived among them, camped beside them, and faced them for 
months at a time. Mr, Stuart, whose studio I visited, had his right 
arm in a sling. He got it broken, having slipped on a glacier on one 
of tiie mountains a distance of 200 yards before he recovered himself. 

"Wednesday, August 20th, at 7 a. ar., we leave on a steamer for 
The Dalles. This is the commencement of a continuous journey from 
Portland to St. Paul, 1,912 miles, which is to last up to the afternoon 
of Sunday, August 24th. We might have gone by rail from Port- 
land ; but we preferred the steamer'trip of one day on the Willamette 
and Columbia rivers. At The Dalles we had time for supper before 
the train, which left at 11:40 a. m., overtook us. We had engaged 
sleeping berths on the train, and, wlien it overtook us, we had noth- 
ing to do but to step on board and take our assigned places. The 
Willamette looked spacious enough to fill the full measure of the 
description of the Columbia. The conjunction of the two rivers 
deserved the title of a lake. 

The Columbia, what we saw of it on this day's trip, was simply 
an immense caiion filled by a correspondingly immense river. Fog 
and forest fires limited our sight-seeing ; mountains make our 
shores. Among the marvels of the rocky shores were Rooster Rock, 
Castle Rock, grotesque figures like sentries; palisades of varied kinds, 
high and low; at some points a perfect wall slanting away from the 
water, producing fine effects with the aid of sun and mist, or sunset; 
Multnomah Falls, and cascades like Niagara river above Niagara 
Falls. Curious rocks popped up here and there in this wonderful 
stream. Evidently these once had been one ; but the water had 
washed them apart. Rocky cones were numerous. The water had 
cut its way through the rocks. This was especially the case east of 
The Dalles, where the river dashed througli many curious rocky 
channels which it had cut for itself. 

The trip from Portland to The Dalles was made by steamer to 
the Cascades; then we took a train for a few miles past the Cascades; 
and then took another steamer for The Dalles, from whence we made 
the remainder of our trip to St. Paul by train. We passed large 
canneries, where salmon are canned, and saw the simple method of 
catching salmon wholesale. 

After leaving The Dalles, and just before nightfall, we passed an 
Indian village, or encampment, close to the river. An Indian girl 



74 



NOTES OF A TRIP 




Multnomah Falls, Columbia River. 



FROM CHICAGO TO VICTORIA. 75 

was picking hor way along the shore; an Indian man and boy, 
mounted on one horse, jogged indolently along; an Indian woman 
was rowing in a boat, and her " noble," melancholy red man sat at 
his ease therein. One Indian hut stood close to the river's edge, con- 
venient for fishing, and subject to prompt change of base if the river 
should rise ; and rivers out here are troubled that way. Some of the 
beds were outside of all shelter, with only the sky for a canopy. 
Indians of all ages and sexes were sprawling in all directions and 
attitudes, none of the latter graceful or picturesque, and some not 
quite decent. Old female Indians were withered, shriveled and 
ugly. Dirt and squalor! The noble red man? Oh, no! The dirty, 
Ia"zy, thieving red man, devoid of all romance or grace, yet not quite 
devoid of interest, because he continues to be considerable of a 
nuisance and obstruction. 

It were too long to tell of rivers, lakes and mountains with which 
we made acquaintance ; of immense gorges through which we and 
the rivers ran, rivers which we cross and recross, and lose and find 
again endlessly. From our inner consciousness we evolve how a 
town is made. It is done by cutting down a few trees, and burning 
a few more, thus clearing a space in the woods sufficient for a few 
tents and wooden houses, then shooting somebody to start a ceme- 
tery, and the thing is done. 

In one new town we saw an hotel. It bore the sign of " Palace 
Hotel," and promised fresh bread and beds. It was a long, wooden 
shanty of one room, with a " wash-room " at one side of it. In- 
ferentially we came to the conclusion, that, after supper is served 
every evening, and the tables cleared, beds are then made up on the 
tables ; and any high-toned, gilt-edged, kid-gloved guest, who is 
very particular and exclusive, can have a table to himself on payment 
of extra charge. Indians and Chinese abound on this route ; the 
latter were imported to build the railroad, and remained to prey. 
We passed a graveyard with memorials erected by vigilants to those 
whom they had rooted out. It was but yesterday, so to speak, and 
that state of society has passed away so quickly that it will be myth 
to-morrow. Change C(jmes so fast in new lands. 

We passed a mountain on fire ; it was more a blaze of weeds and 
grass than trees. The crossing of lake Pend d'Oreille on the railway 
was fine, and the scenery on the whole route was marvelous. It is 
well named " Wonderland" in books which treat of it. 

Night and darkness reigned when we crossed the Missouri ; but 
we got out on the rear platform of the car to strain our eyes to pierce 



76 



NOTES OF A TRIP 




Lake Pend d'Oreille. 



FROM CHICAGO TO VJCTORIA. 



77 



"":>. -.-l. y'^^. 





Fort Snelling. 



through the dark, to 

the waters which 

have still 3,500 

miles to go before 

they reach the sea. 

Above the bridge, 

the Missouri and its 

affluents have ::i,000 

miles of navigable 

waters. 

We passed across Dakota at night, and missed its prolific wheat 

fields. It is estimated that Minnesota has 10,000 lakes, varying from 

one to thirty miles in diameter; we saw a fair percentage of them, 

and never tired of their infinite variety. 

From Sunday, August 24th, to Tuesday, August 26th, we remained 
in St. Paul, with tlie excej^tion of a carriage drive to Fort Snelling 
and the Falls of Minnehaha. Wednesday morning we were in Chi- 
cago, after our thirty-four days' travel of 6,010 miles, and after hav- 
ing seen some portion of one British province and thirteen States 
and Territories of the United States, not including I Hindis, the State 
from which we started, and to which we returned. 




Falls of Minnehaha. 






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